The Haines Senior Center meals and transportation program will return to five-day service this fall, thanks to a grant secured through the Chilkoot Indian Association.
Marsha Partlow, who oversees the program’s funding as regional coordinator for Southeast Senior Services, said the $79,392 grant will pay for at least nine months of five-day service starting Oct. 1.
A pending request for $6,000 from the Haines Borough would make it possible to extend daily lunch service to five days a week for a full year, Partlow said. A borough grant two years ago helped maintain four-day lunch service when funding cuts were going to reduce it to three days.
“We partnered with the CIA to make this happen. They were really a great tribe to work with,” Partlow said. “With money from the borough, we hope to start five-day-a-week service before October 1st.”
Except for special funding that paid for extra service briefly in 2010, the lunch program hasn’t been offered on a five-day-a-week basis for about 15 years, Partlow said. “The seniors love five days a week. They missed it when it stopped. We want to do five days a week.”
Lunch program manager Cindy Jackson said the program serves up to 40 meals a day, including ones delivered to homebound seniors. Seniors come to enjoy social activity and a meal, and some depend on the hot lunch for their main meal of the day, Jackson said.
Lunches are an important source of nutrition, providing a balanced meal that seniors – including many who live alone – would otherwise miss, she said. “Some people just resort to tea and toast.”
Partlow said Southeast Senior Services continually seeks funding from a variety of sources ranging from the Alaska Department of Transportation to local churches in order to offer the most services possible for Haines seniors.