Success Stories 2023

"Providing food in the Senior Center, Pico Rivera helps me to have adequate nutrition. It keeps me healthy and active. Thanks!" – Connie V. Ehlers

"Want to say this nutrition program is very good. Me and my husband both enjoy it. The lunch is good Healthy" -Esperanza Aguilar

Ingeborg (Inge) Frese has been coming to the Park Avenue Community Center (PACC) for 45 years!

She’s seen several name changes over the decades. From back when we were called the Joslyn Center, then the Escondido Senior Center and finally our current name Park Avenue Community Center.

Inge accompanied her mother 3-4 times per week beginning 1978. She joined her parents for the Friday Night Potluck Dinners. Inge’s mother taught the German Club here until the age of 96! Even though she was not a senior at the time, she truly enjoyed being able to share these times with her mother.

Inge worked for the County of San Diego Library Services for 25 years and was a dedicated public servant. She was known as "Ms. Bunny" because she loves Peter Rabbit. Inge researched and created special children’s programs. Every Halloween Inge continues her love for books and dresses as a character from one of her favorite books.

Inge’s favorite things about PACC:

• Interacting with people
• The Nutrition Program – delicious HOT meals
• Learning new things
• Art with Lina (Lina chooses a subject, provides all materials and the seniors paint using their own creativity)
• Baking with Vanessa (Seniors get to bake something delicious and take it home)
• Feeling Fit
• Tai Chi
• Live Well Programs

Inge also loves the way staff goes all out for the holidays and loves the way we interact with our seniors.

Inge used to be a planner, so she appreciates the time and effort it takes to put our programs on and create a festive atmosphere.

Inge thinks of the PACC staff as family, and we are honored that she feels that way.

The nutrition manager for the Older Californians Nutrition Program at the City of Vista’s Gloria McClellan Senior Center continues to raise the bar – the salad bar – by crafting salads made to order.

With offerings ranging from homemade salad dressings that are lower in sodium, fresh greens, whole grains, to vegetables consisting of every color of the rainbow, older adults can choose from a beautiful array of nutritious and delicious foods. It’s easy to understand why reservations for the salad option are soaring and often surpass reservations for the regular hot lunch program.

With the cost of food on the rise, participants are drawn to the fresh produce offerings and are so grateful that the City of Vista carved out room in the program budget to provide such a salubrious service.

The quality of salads continues to rise as program staff undergoes culinary training including knife skills and recipe development. Better yet, a brand-new salad bar will arrive soon, which will allow participants to handcraft their own entrée salads. It is un-beet-lievable to see everything the nutrition manager and her team of volunteers continue to accomplish with the salads and other aspects of the nutrition program at the Gloria McClellan Senior Center.

One of the many highlights of visiting a local Senior Nutrition Center is seeing the direct positive impact it has on older adults. Jose, 67, Ernst, 70, and Pete, 84, sat at the same table, enjoying their lunch and conversation. Although it was their first time meeting each other, they seemed like old friends.

Pete is the nutrition center veteran of the group with nearly a decade of attendance, followed by Jose, who joined right before the pandemic, and then Ernst visiting for only his second time. All three gave the Senior Nutrition Program great reviews, with Pete and Jose both agreeing it has improved since reopening after the pandemic.

Food and conversation flowed as the trio shared childhood dreams of what they wanted to be when they grew up, Ernst’s and Jose’s experiences of immigrating to America, and their common appreciation for the Senior Nutrition Center.

It was a trifecta of fun: socializing, making new friends, and sharing a great meal.

The Ramona Senior Center holiday event was a fantastic and wonderful treat for our seniors. Our Activities Coordinator said it best: "This is a beautiful event that takes place thanks to a grant from the San Diego Seniors Community Foundation.  I cannot tell you how much joy this brings to our local seniors. Seeing the smiles on their faces is indescribable and the happiness expressed is priceless."

As 120 older adults entered our beautifully decorated building, we let them know we had a surprise waiting in the multi-purpose room and then the holiday magic unfolded. First, they were surprised by volunteers, staff, and Santa ready to fill a shopping bag full of gifts. As they traveled through the room, they got to pick a colored hot/cold tumbler, a tin of butter cookies, a big package of cocoa powdered truffles, a word find, non-slip fuzzy warm socks, mittens, and foaming hand soap. They also received a stocking stuffed with hot cocoa and a peppermint stir spoon, and the Big Man himself, Santa, handed them candy canes.

Finally, they entered the dining room to sit and socialize with their friends until their meal was served: ham with cherry sauce, yams, green bean casserole and a dinner roll followed by a slice of fruit of the forest pie.

Our Executive Director captured the day’s events perfectly, saying, "It really brings such a warm feeling to my heart to be able to do this for our seniors. So many of them live alone, don’t have family, or their families live out of state. This event makes sure they get to be part of something for the holidays. The seniors are always so grateful and just can’t believe that this event was all for them."

She’s funny and kind and generous. Roslyn has lived a remarkable 70 years in Bayview, serving her community and family. She has fond memories of camping, her aunt and mother teaching her how to sew, and playing sports in the neighborhood. Growing up with four brothers, Roslyn’s sports were basketball, football, and — her favorite — volleyball.

Roslyn attended college and became a Certified Nutritionist as well as a lifelong learner. She ran the Peer Mentoring Tutoring Program, a high school program for students who had difficulty completing high school, at Southeast Community Center. She and her students become a large part of each other’s lives. Many still visit her. These relationships are especially meaningful to her.

Roslyn also collects clothes for the local unhoused population. As a child, her mother and aunt taught her how to sew, so Roslyn uses these skills to mend donated clothing before they’re distributed to those in need.

Sadly, due to a medical condition, she cannot be exposed to COVID. For now, Roslyn’s time is spent at home. Seven years ago, one of her students told her about Meals on Wheels San Francisco and she began receiving home-delivered meals.

"It’s a wonderful program, a wonderful staff."

As a nutritionist, she recognizes the meals are based on the nutritional needs of older people.

She especially raves about her driver. "Raymond is a wonderful person," she says. "He’s got a wonderful sense of humor. And he’s a wonderful guy."

She also appreciates the check-ins and the personal touches that come with the meals.

"They include you just like a family member. That’s outstanding. You don’t get that everywhere." Meals on Wheels also helped her by obtaining a microwave and a small refrigerator for her room. And she loves the food. Her favorites? "I love the enchiladas. I like the fish. The steak and potatoes. The meatloaf—delicious! My hat is off to the chefs!"

In September 2019, Roger K first began participating in the City of Glendale’s Elderly Nutrition Program. Like so many others enrolled in the meals program, Roger joined for the nutrition and to socialize.

2019 was a year of change for Roger. He declared bankruptcy and lost his home to foreclosure. Roger purchased a small SUV and began sleeping in his car. Thanks to his membership at a local fitness center, he could use the gym to shower and his car became his shelter at night.

While spending his days at the Glendale Central Library, Roger met library patrons who told him about the Elderly Nutrition Program. He enrolled in the congregate meals program and began making friends with other participants. In 2022, City of Glendale Homeless Services and non-profit organization Ascencia began outreach to help homeless individuals with housing vouchers. Roger and other individuals who met the requirements for the voucher program were approached by an Adult Recreation Center Supervisor. Working with the City's Homeless Services Section and Ascencia, Roger began the paperwork process. Six months after starting the process, Roger received his housing voucher. He began apartment hunting and found one that met his needs. Within two months, he moved into a new home. Roger considers himself very lucky and is thankful for all the individuals involved in helping him achieve this success.

The City of Los Angeles Department of Aging and LOOP partnered through ONEgeneration and St. Barnabas to implement a pilot "Cyber Café" program to help reduce social isolation through virtual programming.

The pilot was initially created to associate a social activity with a grab & go meal to transition clients from a home-delivered meal program to a congregate meal program. However, during the pilot implementation, we realized there were other innovative ways the Cyber Café could be utilized, such as offering it as an activity/program alongside the Agencies’ onsite meal services. Our clients loved listening to live music or going on a virtual tour while eating lunch with their friends.

This service was also offered to promote more socialization for home-delivered meal clients who were not able to get out of the house. Some of the classes offered through the Cyber Café included meditation, world tours, exercise, music lessons, trivia, and so much more.

Coming together virtually provided not only a safe communication method but built a sense of purpose and belonging.

During the holidays, Sourcewise Meals on Wheels asked a class of kids to volunteer to write cards to some of our Meals on Wheels to spread some cheer around the holidays.

Meals on Wheels recipient Darlene expressed her gratitude with a thank you card. She writes how thankful she is for the meals, holiday scarf, and the handmade holiday cards created by our volunteers. She not only appreciates the meals, but also the weekly calls she receives from her Sourcewise Ambassador. Our Sourcewise Ambassador program provides a wellness call to help our older adults feel connected during these uncertain times, and bring a little joy and companionship to homebound seniors in our community.

Darlene hoped her thank you card could be used to share the spirit of the holiday season. She expressed how appreciative she is for all the people involved in providing our service. Darlene added she wanted to share her experience with all who may not realize the importance of feeling a part of something much more than food. With the great feedback received, we hope to continue distributing greeting cards for other holidays throughout the year.

Three years ago, the world was turned upside down when COVID-19 began its spread. Businesses were closed, people locked themselves in their homes, and social services that numerous individuals and families depended on were interrupted.

Meals on Wheels for Santa Cruz County, a program of nonprofit agency Community Bridges, pivoted to continue its mission of nourishing, both physically and emotionally, the region’s older adults. The number of people calling for home deliveries doubled from 350 to nearly 700. At the same time, we lost roughly half our volunteers, as many were older adults themselves and opted to stay in their homes.

In this moment of crisis, Meals on Wheels for Santa Cruz County answered the call thanks to its remaining dedicated volunteers. Our focus quickly shifted from providing meals at in-person dining sites to home deliveries, and we found ourselves becoming one of the largest providers of meals to older adults experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. From March 16, 2020, to June 30, 2021, Meals on Wheels for Santa Cruz County provided 14,115 meals to 151 unhoused older adults. We also added a breakfast program to our home delivery services, ensuring homebound older adults, isolated from their friends and family, would have access to healthy breakfasts. In total, we served more than 376,400 meals during this 15-month timespan.

Since the pandemic restrictions wound down and in-person dining sites reopened, we’re happy to say that we have now served more than 10 million meals since our mission launched in 1976. We serve 1,600 people annually, and in 2022, we delivered 211,330 meals and served 24,345 meals at our congregate dining sites across Santa Cruz County. The meals provided at our congregate dining sites give older adults physical nourishment and an opportunity to reconnect with friends they were separated from during the pandemic as well as make new connections and new friendships.

Marjorie Ritchie, 98 years old and a Bay Area native, is best known for her caring and helpful attitude as a volunteer at the Hayward Senior Center, part of a quilting group at her church, and as an office administrator at the Oak Knoll Navy Hospital. She has been part of the San Leandro community since 1948, when her family built a house in the Fairmont Terrace area.

Marjorie, like many others, joined the Service Opportunity for Seniors Meals on Wheels (SOSMOW) program at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She shared with us her love for the warm and friendly community of staff and volunteers, who she said treat her "like a queen." Marjorie has built a community around her with services like SOSMOW and the falls prevention program from our partner Spectrum Community Services, to help her continue to live a healthy and independent life in the home she has loved for 75 years.

Claudia’s Story

Meet Pat Woods. She’s given a huge amount of her time to serve our community with the Nutrition Program’s daily lunches in the Alcosta Senior and Community Center.

Her story begins when she moved to the United States from the U.K. in 2008 at the age of 79 to live near her family in San Ramon. Pat started going to the Senior Center for her lunch with a friend in 2009, thinking it would be an opportunity to meet people. Her friend was a volunteer in the kitchen, serving meals to our guests.

As time went by, Pat decided that she would like to help in the kitchen. She started coming in on Fridays and it wasn’t long before Pat was in the kitchen every day, as she found friends and the enjoyment of helping others by serving meals. Pat has always been full of energy. She has helped with washing dishes, getting tableware out to serve meals, and registering guests in the dining room, which she still does today.

In 2019, Pat was honored by the City of San Ramon for her dedication, with 1,000 hours of service to the meals program at the Senior Center. She’s still helping today, at 92, and is beloved by staff and guests of the Center. Pat is an inspiration to many, and her story shows how the Nutrition Program is successful at bringing people together.

Earlimart Senior Center

The Earlimart Senior Center reopened just a few weeks ago and is serving 22-25 seniors daily. In a rural community that lacks a grocery store, the seniors in Earlimart are very happy and thankful for the Center to be open again. They look forward to daily interaction with one another while enjoying a nutritious hot meal.

During outreach for the Earlimart Senior Center reopening, we ran into Gloria Alavez Lopez, a senior who lives at home alone. Gloria was so happy to hear about the Center opening that she promised to help with outreach. She walks to the Center bright and early each day and is always one of the first seniors to arrive, bringing Mexican bread from the bakery to share. For seniors like Gloria, the Center is a meaningful place to socialize, talk, play bingo or Loteria, color, or do a word search. It brings a big smile to their faces and reassurance that they are important and cared for.

Farmersville Senior Center

The reopening of the Farmersville Senior Center was a warm and emotional experience for the Farmersville community, with multiple returning and new Senior Center attendees present. Many returning clients were happy to hear about the reopening of the Center and looked forward to participating in the program once again. Some expressed their joy at reuniting with long-time friends they met through the program and being able to participate in both the social and nutritional aspects of the program. On opening day, the attendees enjoyed games and activities such as Loteria and puzzles with raffle prizes. No one went home empty-handed.

Two months after the reopening of the Senior Center, daily attendance continues to rise, and attendees continue to enjoy the variety of activities and meals provided at the Center. They enjoy participating in various self-guided and group activities, with Loteria being the most popular activity. The meals are also very popular, with many of the attendees sharing that they would love to have three meals a day at the center to be able to socialize.

Jewish Family Service (JFS) San Diego welcomed a full house of older adults to the grand reopening of our popular College Avenue Center in late January. During the January reopening, JFS hosted a resource fair to help our community become re-acquainted with all the services we have to offer – including our JFS Fix-It Service, which can help with minor home safety repairs, and our Volunteer Engagement program, which offers a variety of opportunities for older adults. The resource fair also featured presentations from JFS’s community partners from Alzheimer’s San Diego, Live Well San Diego, San Diego Love on a Leash-Inland Chapter and UC San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. JFS’s College Avenue Center is currently offering all new programming Monday-Friday including Tai Chi exercise classes, along with a variety of other educational opportunities and a healthy lunch.

Many older adults who attend the Center no longer drive and have enrolled in JFS’s On the Go transportation service. Not only do we provide rides back and forth to the Center, community members are also able to use the transportation service to get back and forth to medical appointments, shopping errands, and cultural activities.

As one of the regular visitors to the Center told us: "The secret to living to 92," said Mary Gallagher, "is a good attitude, and staying involved." We couldn’t agree more! The center provides our community with opportunities to make social connections, along with healthy activities for the mind and body. It is just one of the components of JFS’s mission to help older adults stay in their homes while continuing to lead independent, dignified lives.

Rosie Valdez, who is 71 years old, has been a resident in Bloomington, California since 1977. She enjoys attending Senior Center events because they provide a safe space where she can socialize, engage with other seniors, and form new friendships. While it was only her third visit to the Bloomington location, she has visited a few different Senior Nutrition Sites throughout San Bernardino County (Colton, Rialto, and Fontana).

"The staff and people here are so kind and helpful. I like that I get a chance to make friends instead of being alone at home," Rosie said. She shared that she has been able to meet new friends and participate in activities she enjoys every time she visits a site. Her favorite events are when she can dress up, wear hats, and feel extra special.

Senior Nutrition Centers have been proven to be beneficial and vital for older adults, from providing meals and community to having a second chance at love. Sebastian and Frances are a shining example of how important Senior Nutrition Centers are to those they serve. While waiting for the music to start at Family Service Association’s Bloomington Valentine’s Day event, Sebastian, sporting a sparkly red jacket, proudly shared that his girlfriend, Frances, was the one who gifted it to him. They met at the Redlands Senior Center’s dance four years ago and became friends. After a few months, they began to date and have been happily together ever since.

Sebastian and Frances were hand in hand throughout the event with large smiles on their faces. They have attended several different Senior Centers around San Bernardino County, and shared how the Centers have allowed them to find community with other older adults who are also searching for a space to participate in fun activities and form new friendships. Sebastian, 91, loved sharing about the great events he and Frances have attended, from karaoke to bingo to being crowned King and Queen of the Rialto Senior Center’s Dance.