Area Agency tells menu, holiday closings
Area Agency on Aging of Southeast Arkansas is serving lunches from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. weekdays at the senior centers. Next week’s menu and includes:
Monday — Chicken broccoli quiche, hashbrowns, hot sliced apples, blueberry muffin, and milk.
Tuesday — Baked turkey with gravy, cornbread dressing with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie with whipped topping, and milk.
Wednesday — Hamburger on bun, lettuce, tomato, onion, corn salad, baked chips, banana pudding, and milk.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Thursday and Friday — Area Agency’s main office, senior centers, and Southeast Arkansas Transportation (SEAT) will be closed Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving. SEAT will run those days for cancer and dialysis appointments only.
USACE lifts small craft advisory
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is lifting the small craft advisory for the Arkansas River. Small craft advisories are issued when flows reach 70,000 cubic feet per second.
While flows are receding, USACE officials urge boaters to always exercise caution when on the river. Before setting out in a pleasure craft, dress for the weather, check flow conditions, file a float plan with friends or family, always wear a life jacket and give commercial towboats an extra wide berth for safety’s sake. Details: www.swl-wc.usace.army.mil or www.swl.usace.army.mil.
Ole Miss inducts local into honor society
Hagan Hord of Stuttgart was among the 189 University of Mississippi students who were welcomed into the Phi Kappa Phi honor society.
Hord is majoring in integrated marketing communications. The university held an induction ceremony Nov. 3 at the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts on campus. Phi Kappa Phi is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honor societies for all academic disciplines, according to a news release.
Delta Dental funds oral health education
Local community health workers (CHWs) will teach the importance of oral hygiene and good dental habits to residents in seven counties.
The CHWs will use their training to educate residents in Chicot, Jefferson, Lee, Mississippi, Monroe, Phillips and Woodruff counties that have been identified as “red zones” or high-risk due to high mortality and poverty rates and poor health statistics. The CHWs will also help residents access much-needed dental care, according to a news release.
A Strategic Initiative Grant of almost $185,000 from the Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation is funding oral health education training and program delivery through five CHWs employed by the Tri County Rural Health Network (TCRHN) based in Helena.
By educating the residents about the link between oral and overall health, fostering trust and facilitating connections between dental providers and patients, the CHWs aim to increase the use of preventive oral health services, especially among pregnant women, young mothers and children.
Over one year, the project aims to reduce the number of dental-related emergency room visits while increasing the numbers of new users of oral health services, dental appointments made and kept and residents who say they feel empowered to take charge of their oral health.