By Lucky Kidd
Some donations have been received to help the Friendship Meals program continue in the Larned area in the wake of federal funding for it being cut by nearly Half.
Welcome Inn Senior Center director Juanita Lemon tells Ad Astra News they are looking for support going forward. “What we’re really looking for now is someone who will be able to donate on a monthly basis next year, because every day they have people who can’t afford to pay.”
Friendship Meals is coordinated in much of the Golden Belt by ElderCare, Inc. which supports the program across a 28 county area of southwest Kansas.
ElderCare’s Executive Director, Brandi Gruber, said the funding it receives through the Older Americans Act was cut from 65 to 36 cents per meal as of Oct. 1, and they are not allowed to raise prices to make up for that.
They have also been impacted like you with the increased cost of food which for them has gone up 11 percent. A $3.50 charge is suggested for each meal, which costs almost double that to prepare.
Many of the 14 kitchen sites in the region, including the one in Larned, also support Meals on Wheels programs, and also support sites in surrounding communities such as Ellinwood and Hoisington served from Great Bend’s Senior Center. It also works with long-term care facilities in some communities, such as Locust Grove Village in LaCrosse.
To clear up some confusion, Friendship Meals, while housed at the Welcome Inn, is a separate entity from the Senior Center, which is also supported by donations which support the operational and maintenance costs of the facility, which provides a place for seniors to go “that is warm in the winter, cool in the summer, where they can come and read the paper, put puzzles together, play cards, exercise, whatever they would like to do,” Lemon explained.
If you would like to support Friendship Meals in Larned, you can drop off or send donations to Welcome Inn at 113 West 4th in Larned.
There is also a fundraising project in the works to support the Barton County program, and we’ll have information on that as available.
