La Conner senior meals cancelled

People who gather every week at Maple Hall for lunch with the La Conner Senior Center were making “last supper” and “last meal” jokes on Tuesday.

After eight years, the Senior Nutrition Program of the Skagit County Department of Public Health and Community Services has stopped delivering meals for the La Conner seniors.

Tuesday’s “last meal” consisted of meatball subs with spinach salad, a fruit cup, a cookie and a choice of chocolate or 1 percent milk for a suggested price of $5, which nearly everyone paid.

In a letter to Senior Center Director Janna Gage, the Nutrition Program Coordinator Renee Corcoran said the county is still willing to prepare the food at its kitchen in Mount Vernon, but the seniors would have to find their own way to have it delivered and served.

And since the program must meet strict standards because it receives government funding, the volunteer would need to be trained, Gage said. Also, besides delivering and then measuring out serving portions, the job entails collecting the cash, keeping track of the paperwork and taking the equipment back to Mount Vernon after the meal.

County employees had been taking care of all the details since 2007, when La Conner seniors started receiving senior meal service under a special contract for once-a-week delivery. This year the contract for January through December was signed on April 20, Gage said.

Then a letter dated May 21, barely a month after the contract was signed, gave notice that the service would end because the county no longer has anyone available to make deliveries and had to cut service at other satellite locations, as well.

“It’s been a nice program, with people coming together,” said Sandy Chomiak, who with Gage initiated the weekly lunch program in La Conner.

“This won’t be the last time we eat together in this room,” Gage told about 15 people who came for lunch.

The seniors were very upbeat and were making plans to keep having lunch together on Tuesdays, even if they have to brown bag it.

Their next meal will be taco salad catered by the Rexville Grocery for a special event at the senior center, a concert, on Tuesday, June 30. “We promised them lunch,” Gage said, “and then this change happened.”

Meanwhile, the seniors plan to shop around and see if local eateries would be willing to provide $5 lunches for them on Tuesdays.

Bob Skeele said he’d like to see lunch rotate among the various local restaurants.

The optimism was catchy – it was noted that should the seniors arrange lunch on their own, they will no longer be restricted by government nutrition guidelines like school kids.

“We’ll be able to eat what we want and what we like,” Gage said.