COLUMBUS, Ohio – As cold-weather records teeter and fall across Ohio, residents with limited budgets and mobility are feeling the pinch, as are organizations trying to help.
The organization that delivers Meals On Wheels to residents in five central Ohio counties is finding its job more difficult, not just because of icy, snow-covered roads, but because of a shortage of volunteers.
Michelle Jones, communications director of LifeCare Alliance, says many of the organization’s volunteers escape the cold weather by traveling to Florida and other warmer destinations and older volunteers find it difficult to drive in some neighborhoods and get to homes because of sidewalks not being cleared.
Lifecare Alliance delivers Meals On Wheels in Franklin, Madison, Marion, Logan and Champaign counties.
Contact Lifecare Alliance to volunteer
The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has helped nearly half a million Ohioans, including 53,068 in Franklin and the surrounding counties, keep their furnaces running during the winter 0f 2013-14. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) say
“No Ohioan should have to choose between filling a prescription, putting dinner on the table, or keeping warm,” he said. “Last year, more than 420,000 Ohio households relied on LIHEAP funds to keep the heat on. This home heating assistance is critical every winter, but especially with this year’s frigid temperatures.”
LIHEAP assists low-income households—particularly those with the lowest incomes that pay a high proportion of household income for home energy—in meeting their immediate home energy needs.