Senior Center lunch returns

The $5 Tuesday lunch at the La Conner Senior Center at Maple Hall will resume next month.

“We have made arrangements with four local food establishments,” said center director Janna Gage. Each business will rotate the catering monthly.

“We are proud to announce that La Conner Retirement Inn will prepare lunches for us on August 4, Pioneer Market on August 11, Rexville Grocery on August 18, and La Conner Pantry and Pub on August 25,” she said.

The price will be $5 per person. The menu will be announced in the center’s regular spot in this newspaper.

Each week 15 lunches will be ordered and will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis.

Lunch will be served at noon, but Gage suggests arriving at 11:45 a.m. There are no age restrictions.

“This is a trial basis and we’ll see how it goes and do fine tuning when necessary,” Gage said. “We are very proud to be able to offer lunch again with the help of our local merchants.”

For eight years, the La Conner elders purchased lunches delivered through the Senior Nutrition Program of the Skagit County Department of Health and Community Services, but that agency stopped delivering in May.

For the past two months, members of the group that gathers each week have been bringing their own lunches. In the meantime, the center was working for weeks contacting local eateries and the four listed above stepped up.

The seniors are looking forward to the new lunch catering selection – several of the chefs produced the winning entries in the local chowder and spaghetti cook-offs over the years.

“You don’t have to be a senior, just come and have lunch with us,” Gage said.