Tammy McDaniel is dreading April 1, but not because it is a day for practical jokes.

It is the day McDaniel, executive director of the Community Action Agency of Northwest Alabama, might have to notify 180 elderly or disabled residents of Colbert, Franklin and Lauderdale counties that they will have to fend for themselves for weekend meals.

The Meals on Wheels weekend meals program operated locally by the Community Action Agency has enough money to operate until March 31. If donations are not received, the program will end that day.

“The bottom line is when the money runs out, the weekend meals stop,” McDaniel said.

Residents, businesses and organizations have donated $11,289 to the weekend meal program, which is enough to pay for its operation through the end of March.

McDaniel said donations have slowed considerably this month. No donations were received in the past week.

McDaniel has asked state lawmakers around the Shoals for help, but so far has not received any government assistance to keep the weekend meals program operating.

“I really worry about the clients and what they will do if we lose the weekend meals program,” McDaniel said. “I imagine they will have to eat whatever they can find in their house or hope that a friend or family member brings them something.

“Many of our clients are no longer able to cook because of their age or disability. They are not able to get out and go to the grocery store on their own and they have become dependent on the weekend meals program in order to have something nutritious to eat on Saturday and Sunday.”

Volunteers deliver weekend meals, which cost $2.90 each and are frozen. Recipients heat the meals in a microwave oven.

McDaniel said it costs about $55,000 annually to purchase the weekend meals.

Unlike the Meals on Wheels weekday meals program, which is supported by the United Way, the weekend program depends on donations. A federal grant that helped pay for the weekend meals program expired in 2010.

In 2011, residents, businesses and organizations donated more than $45,000 to help provide weekend meals to the local Meals on Wheels program.

Norma Bass, of Florence, a Meals on Wheels volunteer, encourages her friends and the congregation of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Florence to consider sending a donation to Meals on Wheels as a memorial when someone they know dies.

“Meals on Wheels is a good program. A lot of the people I deliver meals to are on walkers and can barely get around,” Bass said. “It will hurt a lot of people if they stop the weekend Meals on Wheels program.”

Donations for the weekend program can be mailed to Community Action Agency of Northwest Alabama, 745 Thompson St., Florence, AL 35630, or made online through PayPal or a credit card at caanw.org.

Dennis Sherer can be reached at 256-740-5746 or dennis.sherer@TimesDaily.com.