September 25, 2008 in Voices

New hot lunch spot

Meals on Wheels opens one more location for area seniors to gather for a meal

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CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON photo

Kathy Williams dishes up a hot lunch at the Edgecliff Neighborhood Center Friday. The former Pratt Elementary School on East Fourth Avenue is now the site of the Edgecliff Neighborhood Center where, in conjunction with Valley Meal on Wheels, low-income seniors can get a hot lunch during weekdays. The center also offers after-school programs, exercise and craft programs.
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Spokane Valley Meals on Wheels has added the Edgecliff neighborhood as a fourth site that serves hot meals to senior citizens to supplement the delivery routes that bring meals to homes.

Lunch will be served at 11 a.m. Monday through Friday at the Edgecliff Community Center, 6903 E. Fourth Ave. The center is the old Pratt Elementary School, which closed in 2007.

The senior meals organization had been looking for a site in the Edgecliff area for years, said director Pam Almeida. “We couldn’t find a building until Pratt closed,” she said. “It’s really hard for seniors in that neighborhood in particular. There aren’t services there.”

The neighborhood also has the highest concentration of low-income seniors in the Valley. Meals on Wheels teamed with Spokane Valley Partners and got a Community Development Block Grant to open the location as a meal site. A small food pantry will also be coming to the site.

Even then, the expansion required donations and partnerships to get off the ground. The Spokane County Senior Nutrition program will make the meals and provide a site manager two days a week and Spokane Public Schools has cut the organization a deal.

“District 81 has been wonderful to work with,” Almeida said. “We pay the maintenance and utilities for the room that we have and that’s it. It’s wonderful how the partnerships have come together on this.”

Valley Meals on Wheels will provide a site director three days a week. While lunch will be served at 11 a.m. on weekdays, there will be programs and activities for seniors from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. The menu will include educational speakers, exercise classes and movies or whatever else the residents want. The library will bring large print books once a month for checkout.

Almeida is not expecting to see a reduction in the number of the seniors in the area requesting meals delivered to their homes now that the new meal site is open. “I’m actually hoping to reach more people who need it,” she said.

The organization is looking for drivers who can pick up seniors and bring them to the community center. So far turnout for lunch has been low, but once the word gets out Almeida is expecting larger crowds. “It’s just such an exciting thing.”

Reach Nina Culver at 927-2158 or by e-mail at ninac@spokesman.com

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