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Food Bank for Larimer County and Volunteers of America Colorado teamed up to make sure homebound seniors get healthy, nutritious meals.
LARIMER COUNTY, Colorado — A partnership between the Food Bank for Larimer County and Volunteers of America Colorado is getting ready-to-eat nutritional meals in the hands of homebound seniors.
Through the group’s senior meal program, they distribute meals called “senior boxes” to homebound seniors in low-income housing developments across Larimer County, serving six sites and averaging more than 2,400 meals a month.
“Last year, we served 575 seniors and delivered 2,100 meals to them,” said Carrie Olenick, senior director of northern services of Volunteers of America Colorado. “We’re already on target this year to exceed those goals and those numbers. so we’re excited to see this program continue to grow as our older community ‘s population grows.”
The meals are prepared and packaged by volunteers at the food bank where they put together meals following specific nutritional guidelines like calories, carbs, low sodium and low sugar.
Rhonda Niccoli, kitchen manager of Food Bank for Larimer County, said she sees the need for healthy nutritious food for seniors.
“We have volunteers that help us in the kitchen every single day in the preparation of these meals,” Niccoli said. “In the state of Colorado, we are the only food bank that partners with Volunteers of America to provide these meals.”
According to the Colorado Department of Human Services, food for the program is provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP). Seniors 60 years and older whose gross monthly household income is at or below the guidelines below can also qualify:
“All of us have seen how tight budgets food budgets are, especially food budgets,” Olenick said. “So, this is one way we can help older adults get the things that they need, save that extra money that they need to pay their mortgage or their rent.”
The program was started in 2016 as a way of combining the two originations’ missions to meet the nutritional needs and the social needs of older adults in their community.
“That helps strengthen their relationships with their community, with others, and it helps make their well-being, includes their soul, their heart, as well as what their body needs,” Olenick said. “A lot of times, it takes a lot of little ways of helping somebody to be able to get all of their needs met.”
9NEWS works with Food Bank for Larimer County and Volunteers of America Colorado as part of our 9Cares Colorado Shares Drive. Learn how to make a donation here.
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