ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>Oklahoma State Senate - News</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="author" content="oklahoma state senate staff"> <meta name="description" content="Oklahoma State Senate - Press Release"> <meta name="keywords" content="oklahoma, state, senate, press, release"> </head> <body leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"> <table width="87%" height="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the main navigation menu"> <tr> <td colspan="+2"><!-- #BeginLibraryItem "/Library/barnews.lbi" --> &nbsp;<map name="m_barnews"><area shape="rect" coords="0,0,26,19" href="../../../index.htm" alt="Link to main page" ><area shape="rect" coords="26,0,119,20" href="../../../senators.htm" alt="Link to Senators" ><area shape="rect" coords="124,0,217,20" href="../../../legislation.htm" alt="Link to Legislation" ><area shape="rect" coords="216,0,309,20" href="../../../schedule.htm" alt="Link to Schedule" ><area shape="rect" coords="310,0,403,20" href="../../../committees.htm" alt="Link to Committees" ><area shape="rect" coords="403,0,496,20" href="../../../publications.htm" alt="Link to Publications" ><area shape="rect" coords="498,2,591,20" href="../../../news.htm" alt="Link to News" ><area shape="rect" coords="593,0,689,20" href="../../../staff.htm" alt="Link to Staff" ></map><!-- #EndLibraryItem --></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="100%"> <table width="100%" height="227%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the news navigation menu"> <tr> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="100%"></td> </tr> </table> <br> </td> <td width="100%"><table width="82%" border="0" align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="this table contains the main content of the page"> <tr> <TD width="75%"> <p align="center"><FONT SIZE="+3" FACE="Arial" align="center"><strong>Oklahoma State Senate <br> </strong></font><FONT align="center">Senator Kenneth Corn<br> Senate District 4</font></p> <div align="center"> <table width="14%" border="0" align="center"> <tr> <td width="48%" bordercolor="0"><div align="center"><font face="Arial"><a href="pr20100420kpv.html"><img src="../../printnews.gif" alt="Printer-friendly version" width="25" height="25" border="0"></a></font></div></td> </tr> <tr> <td bordercolor="0"><div align="center"><a href="pr20100420kpv.html">Print</a></div></td> </tr> </table> </div> <p align="center">For Immediate Release: May 20, 2010<br> <br> <img src="../senator_photos/corn_bio.jpg" alt="Sen. Kenneth Corn" width="150" height="200"> <br> Sen. Kenneth Corn</p> <p align="center"><b>Senior Meal Funding To Continue; Budget deal means life to some of Oklahoma's most vulnerable citizens</b></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400">A budget agreement reached today between legislative Democrats, the Governor and the Republican controlled state legislature will provide at least $5 million next year to continue the state's vital senior nutrition program state wide, Sen. </strong> <a href="../../../Senators/Senators/biographies/corn_bio.html">Kenneth Corn</a><strong style="font-weight: 400"> said Thursday.</strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400"> Inclusion of the money for the senior nutrition program that I and other Senate Democrats fought so hard for all session long literally means life to thousands of Oklahoma's senior citizens, Corn, D-Poteau, said.  It was a difficult, difficult fight to get funding. This is a major victory for senior citizens across Oklahoma. </strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400">Corn and Sen. Tom Ivester, D-Elk City, began the crusade to save the senior meals programs by camping out on the Capitol steps in protest after state Department of Human Services directors slashed the program drastically and unexpectedly last fall.</strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400">The budget cuts led to more than 100 senior citizen meal program sites closing and scores of others reducing the number of meals they served. In all, more than 800,000 meals were in jeopardy of not being served.</strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400">The food fight drew support from seniors, families, non-profit organizations and dozens of newspaper editorials, all of which demanded the meal program be funded again this year.</strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400">Corn kept the heat on during the early portion of the legislative session, at one point being joined by the Senate Democrat Caucus to block revisions to last fiscal year's budget that were required because of the state's budget collapse over the last 18 months.</strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400">Republicans and the Governor were forced to publicly pledge to continue the program in the 2011 fiscal year budget because of Senate Democrats efforts.</strong></p> <p><strong style="font-weight: 400"> This fight was always about doing what was right, Corn said.  I never understood how some people thought it was okay to deny thousands of senior citizens the only hot meal most of them get each day. The budget is not perfect, this part of the agreement is not perfect  but I can put my head down on my pillow tonight and I know that our seniors are going to be fed, he said.</strong></p> <p><strong>For more information, contact: </strong><br> Sen. Corn: (405) 521-5576</p> <p align="left" style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><img src="../bandblue.gif" alt="Inon: Horizontal Blue Band" width="640" height="6"></p> <table border=0 align="center" summary="this table contains return links"> <tr> <td width="249"> <center> <font size="-1" face="MS Sans Serif"><a href="pr201005.html">May Press Releases </a>| </font><font face="MS Sans Serif"><a href="../../press_releases.html"><font size="-1">Press Releases</font></a></font><font size="-1"> </font> </center></td> </tr> </table></tr> <tr valign="top"> <td height="100%">&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>