By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster wants Boots on the ground.
Boots, in case you don’t recall, is McMaster’s 5-year-old bulldog, not a slang for sending more soldiers in the Middle East.
Boots, pictured above and who appeared in some of McMaster’s 2014 campaign commercials, now is being used as the icon for a new collaborative effort by the state Office on Aging. The new program, which debuts formally Oct. 1 at Lexington event, seeks to link voluntary donations of pet food with low-income seniors who get home-delivered meals and who have pets. The program also will accept donations to go into a kitty, errrr fund, to help pay for vet visits and pet medications for pet-owning seniors who need a little extra help.
McMaster, who oversees the Office on Aging, said he learned this year after taking office that seniors had several special needs that were not being met, especially folks who received meals daily through programs like Meals on Wheels.
“What we found out was that these elderly people were feeding their pets — they were giving the food that we were bring them and giving it to their pets instead of eating themselves,” the lieutenant governor said.
It appeared to happen enough across the state that something needed to be done, McMaster said, so seniors and their companion pets would get the nutrition they needed.
“They were depriving themselves in order to take care of their pets,” he said.
McMaster said he believed the situation could be addressed quickly through a collaborative, volunteer effort coordinated by the Office on Aging.
“There will never be — no matter how many grants we get or what is in the budget — there is never going to be enough [government] money,” he said.
Then came the idea of the Senior Pets Program.
“This is one area that doesn’t cost any money,” he said. “Collaboration is the key in this whole arena.”
The mission of the new program is to provide low- or no-cost pet care to qualifying individuals receiving services through the Office on Aging. “Through the program, seniors will be able to live at home and have meaningful relationships with their pets,” according to the office’s website.
Goals include offering nutritious meals through partner agencies to seniors and their pets, education of seniors on how to take care of pets, allowing seniors to live in their own homes with pets and establishing a statewide network of partners to provide pet supplies and services to seniors receiving other aging services.
Linda Naert, a program developer at the Trident Area Agency on Aging in North Charleston, said her organization has been part of a summer pilot program that added pet food and treats to deliveries of meals to homebound seniors with pets.
“These individuals are very low-income and we were realizing that with their low income, they didn’t have money to purchase food for their pets,” she said.
Naert told of one homebound Lowcountry senior whose dog is “her source of joy and life,” but who had to cut out treats because she didn’t have enough money.
“Now she won’t have to do without,” Naert said. “She was ecstatic.”
Jennifer J. Van Cleave, a program coordinator with the Office on Aging, said some food delivery programs were already including pet food as part of their packages, but the office continues to survey seniors to determine needs.
“As a result, in many areas we have discovered that the primary need is not food, but veterinarian care so the pets can receive yearly vaccines, be spayed or neutered, or receive simple services such as nail trims or ear cleanings,” she said.
Van Cleave added that the Office on Aging has partnered with several groups around the state, including The Good Bowl, a Columbia nonprofit that coordinates pet food donations.
“Through this nonprofit that was established in 2011, we have received 28 pallets of dog food and pet treats that we have been able to distribute to our seniors in the Central Midlands and Trident regions of the state,” she said. “The Good Bowl receives donated food from Natural Balance Pet Foods that in return is given to animal shelters and rescues across the state.”
The Office on Aging’s Senior Pets Program will formally kick off 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, at Buddy’s Hot Dogs in Lexington. One percent of sales will be donated to the program. More information.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
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