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Helping Seniors Stay Independent

Article submitted by Cathy Green. She can be reached at Services for Seniors at 801-887-1275. You may also visit their website at www.utahfoodbank.org or dial 211.

Seniors often find themselves between a rock and a hard place when unexpected home repairs arise - such repairs can cause both financial and mental stress on seniors with fixed incomes. Services for Seniors, a program of Utah Food Bank Services, can help alleviate this stress by providing services that are designed to create a healthier, safer and more independent lifestyle. Our services are free of charge to alleviate the financial burden.

To addresses these issues we offer the following services for free to qualified seniors:

I would like to share with you an account of recent Services for Seniors home repair visit I was fortunate enough to tag along on.

The handyman and I pulled up in the repair truck greeted by Velma with a big smile. She had been moving sprinklers from one spot to another in attempt to keep her lawn a colorful brownish-green. Velma still takes care of her house inside and out at 75 years of age.

It had been three months since Anthony, a Services for Seniors handyman, had been to visit Velma on a swamp cooler repair job -today we are repairing a leaky faucet.

For Velma, homeownership at her age is no easy task. She has lived in her home for over 40 years, and while she enjoys the comfort and independence that comes from living alone she sometimes needs just a little bit of help to remain safely in her home.

"People like Anthony are hard to come by, I just couldn't keep up with things if I didn't have him," Velma said.

Anthony assessed that Velma needed an entirely new faucet fixture. The existing faucet was old and when tightened, would be too difficult for her to turn the knobs with her, Anthony would soon return to install her new faucet.

We provide services like this to over 3,000 seniors annually. Our Services for Seniors programs are currently available in the Salt Lake Valley. For more information please call 801-887-1275. You may also visit our website at www.utahfoodbank.org or dial 211.

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