Meals on Wheels Program continues despite Vermilion Parish Council on Aging closing

The good news is that on Thursday, the elderly who rely on the Vermilion Council on Aging’s Meals For Wheels Program to eat were able to get their meals thanks to the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs and Cajun Area Agency on Aging, who came to the rescue.
The Vermilion Council on Aging had to shut its doors on Wednesday after the board learned it did not have workers’ compensation insurance over a three week period. With no insurance, no employee could work and deliver meals or provide transportation to the elderly.
But on Thursday, the Cajun Area Agency out of Lafayette, which oversees the Meals for Wheels Program in the Acadiana area, stepped in and worked with the current nutrition program personnel to provide 275 meals to the elderly in Vermilion Parish.
The meals program will continue in Vermilion despite the offices being closed. Monday is the July 4th Holiday and the Cajun Area Agency will be closed, so no one will be delivering food.
Shannon Broussard is the director of the Cajun Area Agency. She said despite the Vermilion Parish Council on Aging having to close its doors for a couple of days, the Meals on Wheels Program will continue in the parish.
Auditors from the Cajun Area Agency and the Legislature Auditors are expected to be at the Abbeville office on Tuesday to look over the financial books. They are searching to see why the Vermilion Council on Aging is in debt of $100,000 with the fiscal year coming to a close in June.
Because of the financial situation the Vermilion Council on Aging is in, the state’s Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs and Cajun Area Agency are stepping in to assist the parish’s Council on Aging office in Abbeville.
A special meeting will take place today at 1 p.m. at the Council on Aging office in Abbeville with Broussard and Karen Ryder of the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs.
They will meet with the Vermilion Council on Aging Board, along with Council on Aging Director Lois Bodin and other political figures.