Carson City Senior Center receives grants for upgraded dining room, compostable food packaging and more
The director of the Carson City Senior Center updated the Board of Supervisors during public comment Thursday regarding updates to the facility.
Director Courtney Warner discussed a variety of gifts and grants the senior center received, from technology upgrades to the ability to remodel their dining room, and more.
The first on the list discussed a "generous gift and some grant funding" that allowed senior center "to go" food packaging to become fully compostable through their on site hybrid lunch program.
“Even though it ends up in the landfill, it is doing our part to help the environment,” said Warner.
Warner stated they also received a $10,000 gift to pilot a social connection program through Meals on Wheels to help combat senior isolation and loneliness.
They received a technology grant of more than $22,000 to upgrade the Meals on Wheels software to bring technology into their deliveries which will help with welfare checks and communication on an app-based program, and will increase efficiency so staff is not manually entering information in multiple systems.
They received more than $32,000 for outreach and marketing to take place over the next 18-months in order to advertise services to all populations, including Spanish-speaking populations to make sure that everyone in the community is aware of the services offered.
They also received a gift of just under $720,000 to remodel the dining room, which is fully funded, with no match required from the city.
“This is also a great gift to the city because it tackles some of the capital project including flooring, equipment and some other things that would (have) hit the general fund budget in future years,” said Warner.
With the remodel of the dining room, there will be a set menu as usual, but they will also be able to expand into a "choice menu," so seniors can choose something different for lunch, which Warner says seniors has been asking for.
“We’re very honored to have received all of these grants especially because they are fully covered,” said Warner. “The impact to our seniors is going to be profound.”