Senior Center Raising Funds For Meals

The McDonald County Senior Center in Noel is attempting to raise funds to feed seniors.

The Area Agency on Aging and its senior centers hold an annual Dinner Plate Fundraiser during March, which is National Nutrition Month. Donations made to the center during the month will benefit the nutrition program at the center. Those making a donation will be recognized by having their names placed on the Dinner Plate Hall of Fame inside the center’s dining room. For any donation amount, the donor’s name will be written on a paper plate and displayed at the center throughout the month.

Last year, the senior center provided 8,389 meals to clients who gathered at the center on a daily basis and 16,875 meals to home-bound clients.

Louine Gardner, executive director of the senior center, said, “When I think about what the McDonald County Senior Center means to the residents of the county, so many things come to mind. We serve meals five days a week, and it is a place where seniors can come and play games and fellowship with other seniors.”

Not only does the center serve meals at the center, it has a hot meal route and frozen meal routes for the home-bound, she noted.

“This generation of people worked hard to put food on their table and take care of their families. A large number of seniors have to decide to buy food or buy their medication. That is why the Area Agency on Aging is in need of funds to provide meals for seniors,” she said.

She continued, “Our drivers not only deliver the food, they check on the senior.

They have found some that have fallen, still lying on the floor, and found some that have passed away during the night. One lady, when the driver got to her house, was sitting in a chair with her arm wrapped in a towel. She had hurt her arm during the night and her bed sheets had blood on them. She told the driver she needed to lie down but her sheets were so bloody. So the driver changed her sheets, put them in to soak, and she was able to go to bed. Her family that looked after her was out of town for a few days.

“We have a blind man that the driver would put his food on the table, open his milk, and tell him what was on the plate. Also, a sad fact about this client was that he received $50 too much money to get help from Social Services for Medicaid and help to clean his apartment.

“Parents spend years taking care of their children, but when the parents need to be taken care of, their children are too busy with their lives. So many of our home-bound clients have families that they never see or hear from. The parent sits in their home looking at the four walls and the television. Their everyday life is like an old black and white photo. The meal delivery person is the only person some of them see, so, when he delivers the meal and we send little extra things, especially on holidays, it puts color in their lives.”