ComEd Employees Brighten the Holidays for Senior Citizens

CHICAGO, Dec. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In partnership with Meals on Wheels and the City of Chicago, a group of ComEd employees will serve lunch and spend time with seniors at the Golden Diners Program on Friday, Dec. 16 at the Levy Senior Center in Chicago. The program is one of 133 ComEd employee volunteer events held this year.

With many older adults living alone, the Golden Diners Program offers seniors a way to get a healthy meal each day and enjoy the company of friends.  Lunches are served at nearly 70 community sites each weekday throughout Chicago. In addition to getting a hot, nutritious meal, seniors can participate in activities, such as health education seminars and exercise classes.

Supporting the senior community in northern Illinois has long been a focus area for ComEd. This past summer, ComEd employees participated in the Center on Halsted's SAGE program, which hosts seniors for a meal and socializing. 

Still another component of ComEd's commitment to seniors is making sure the most vulnerable – often those on a modest, fixed income – have access to resources to help manage their electricity expenses. 

Since 2007, ComEd's Residential Special Hardship and Helping Hand programs have provided nearly $24 million in assistance to customers in need, including seniors. While funding for these programs expires this year, ComEd would create a $50 million shareholder-paid-for fund to continue each of them under a plan approved by the Illinois General Assembly in October and pending the Governor's signature.

The Residential Special Hardship program provides one-time grants of up to $500 for residential customers with household incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty level that identify a hardship.

Helping Hand, which ended earlier this year, provided grants of up to 50 percent of a customer's disconnection notice amount provided the customer successfully paid the other 50 percent along with three on-time bill payments.

ComEd has a suite of other programs to help seniors and others save money on their electric bill, including lighting discounts, home energy audits, refrigerator recycling rewards, weatherization incentives.  Information on these programs is available at www.comed.com.

Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd) is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC), one of the nation's largest electric utilities with approximately 5.4 million customers. ComEd provides service to approximately 3.8 million customers across northern Illinois, or 70 percent of the state's population. 

SOURCE ComEd

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