By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — The town’s seniors are the beneficiaries of a grant sought by the Elder Services Department to expand the outreach capacity of its nutrition program.
The six-month pilot program will launch on Monday, September 11 and run on subsequent Mondays through February 26, 2024. The grant awarded by the Massachusetts Council on Aging totals of $12,706.40. These funds will enable the town to provide an additional seven hours of simultaneous programming each Monday for six months at an offsite location to include a daily meal.
The town’s grant application states a steady increase in the number of daily meals served at the Senior Center post-pandemic. While a total of 539 meals were served from September 2022 – December 2022, the number of meals served in the subsequent quarter, January 2023 – April 2023, totaled 1,231. This all takes place inside a space that is limited to single room. As a result, all seniors must call in a daily reservation 24 hours in advance and the lunches are “often ‘sold out’ and we maintain a waitlist for cancellations.”
The offsite location chosen for the pilot is the Aldersgate United Methodist Church at 235 Park St., which has a modern commercial kitchen and can accommodate an additional 110 seniors for lunch, according to Senior Center Director Kimberly Manzelli and Council on Aging Chair Daniel Greenberg who submitted the application.
The current location of the Edith O’Leary Senior Center, which is housed on the first floor of the Third Meeting House on the Town Common – an historic building that is nearly 200 years old –can accommodate about 60 seniors for lunch. But due to the space restrictions at this site, only one program can be run at a time and these programs must finish in time to enable the staff to set up the tables and chairs for lunch and then rearrange the set-up again for post-lunch events or the next morning’s exercise classes.
Additional limitations were noted as well: “The Senior Center offers a limited number of seniors a ride to and from the Senior Center for lunch. The Senior Center has very limited onsite parking making the van rides desirable. Unfortunately, these rides are also limited to one van with seven seats. With the grant money, there could be a second van and driver. Also, the Church is very close to the Senior Center and has a large parking lot, allowing more people to provide their own transportation and/or carpool.”
The benefits of using the satellite space at Aldersgate also include enabling the “Senior Center and the town’s Council on Aging to bring in speakers on subjects like wellness and exercise, cultural activities and entertainment. This would allow the Senior Center to shift the meal program to this much larger space weekly,” Manzelli and Greenberg explained in their grant application.
They elaborated further: “Mystic Valley Elder Services Nutrition Department and the North Reading Board of Health has approved holding the expanded meal program at the church on Mondays. During the six month pilot, we could run simultaneous programs at the current Senior Center and the Aldersgate Church allowing for a greater capacity and larger programs; provide increased community outreach, and further expand volunteer programs to support the senior population in the town. Current staff will facilitate and oversee programs at both sites and if we receive additional funding for van driver hours, we could utilize a second van and driver.”
“An agreement has been reached between the North Reading Aldersgate Church, under Pastor Rachel Fisher, the Aldersgate Church Trustees and the North Reading Council on Aging to use the church commercial kitchen and very large church community space every Monday, beginning September 11, 2023 through February 26, 2024 for a trial period,” the application states.
The use of the Mass. Council on Aging grant funds will break down as follows during the pilot program:
- $2,500: $125 weekly fee for space use;
- $2,206.40: 7 hours per week at $15.76 hour weekly fee for additional van driver hours to provide transportation to alternate site: total $110.32 per week;
- $4,000: $200 per week honorarium for guest speaker, entertainment, and professional program facilitators. Additional programming will be comprised of a variety of health and wellness educational, cultural, exercise and nutrition programs;
- $2,000: $100 per week for additional hospitality refreshments as needed;
- $2,000: Advertising costs to promote additional programs.
“If the pilot project is successful, we will continue to use the Church facilities and continue to find even more spaces in North Reading until all of the needs of the seniors are met. The Friends of the North Reading Council on Aging has agreed to provide some funding if the pilot proves successful,” they concluded.