Just a quick reminder: If you can donate blood, Miller-Keystone Blood Center will have the blood mobile at my Re/Max Unlimited office, 1080 Schadt Ave., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 27.

You can sign up online to donate at tinyurl.com/yy6gagbc. Please call me with questions.

Thursday will be the last community outreach program food distribution until we can open our new Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Pantry. I’ll provide more information in next week’s article.

Thank you again to Lana Snyder and to St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church for hosting our current food pantry, as well as to St. John’s and Redeemed Christian Church of God for providing our two distribution sites since March. A huge note of gratitude also goes to all the volunteers and product and monetary donors. WCHI could not have provided this successful outreach program without your generous support!

I attended a food pantry Zoom workshop and want to share this information on the Gatekeepers Program. It serves seniors in Lehigh and Northampton counties and is sponsored by United Way of the Lehigh Valley and Catholic Charities, Diocese of Allentown.

The program enables the community to recognize and identify seniors in need and ultimately provides help and services. A gatekeeper is any individual who interacts with a senior during the course of a normal day. This could include utility workers, bank tellers, delivery drivers, mail and newspaper carriers and grocery store clerks.

Gatekeepers should identify and refer Lehigh Valley seniors who show signs of depression, dementia or other issues such as potential abuse, neglect, exploitation and food insecurity. Here are some warning signs.

Physical: poor hygiene, inappropriate clothing for weather or situation, missing articles of clothing, bruises or injury, weight loss or gain, looking lost or disoriented

Mental: confusion, forgetfulness, inappropriate verbal/nonverbal responses, difficulty understanding written information though able to read, fabricating stories or excuses for behavior, excessive shopping, delusional aspirations or overly gullible

Emotional: depressed, apathetic, withdrawn or passive, crying more than usual, “I don’t care anymore” attitude, anxious or nervous, fidgety or rapid mood changes, angry, hostile, irritable, stubborn, refusal to cooperate, demanding or negative, exhibits lack of trust, excessive jealousy, excessive emotional reactions to stressors

Physical loss and changes: sensory changes such as loss of sight or hearing, decreased functional ability, acute physical illness, recent or chronic illness (especially if it is progressive), numerous and scattered medicine bottles, inability to drive appropriately

Economic or social changes: loss of job or means of support, confused about handling money, lack of social contacts and support, lack of family involvement, homebound

Living conditions: walkways not shoveled, garden or flowers neglected, garbage or litter accumulation, neglect of animals, shades down (house appears closed off), strong odors, many pets, old newspapers lying around, calendar on wrong month or year, dilapidated and dangerous exterior/interior home environment, little or no food, excessive or not enough heat/AC, numerous empty alcohol containers, car has not been moved for an extended amount of time

For more information on the Gatekeepers Program, contact Carmen Bell, director of healthy aging at United Way, at carmenb@unitedwayglv.org or Bob Olney, community outreach administrator at Catholic Charities, at rolney@allentowndiocese.org.