Director Karon Weatherman is thrilled to share the news that the Sulphur Springs Senior Citizens Center will re-open it’s doors on Monday, April 5, 2021 for exercise, activities and lunch through the Meal A Day program. “Almost a year to the day since we closed in 2020 due to the pandemic, we are finally getting to re-open! I will be happy to welcome our Senior Citizens back in. We do not require masks, but if you wish to wear yours, please do. I will be wearing mine. I will have hand sanitizer by the front door, so please make use of that as you enter. And if you are sick, please stay at home until you get well. We will also be serving lunch each weekday, so if you want to reserve a lunch, please call us at 903-885-1661 to do that, and lunches are still $2 each, dine in or take out.”
“One problem we have run into since the pandemic, is a shortage of cooks. Even through the year of COVID-19, we have continued to cook and send out lunches for our shut-in seniors every weekday. That amounts to 160 meals per day, five days per week, or about 800 meals each week. It has been a rough year volunteer-wise because people were shuttering themselves at home a lot. But we need our volunteer cooks as well as delivery drivers and I am so appreciative for the ones who continued to come and help. Often I have to pitch in for cooking, too, and that’s just part of the job of Director. But I am hoping now that our volunteers will increase in number. Having enough cooks in the kitchen sure makes it more fun when we put on our aprons at 7 a.m.! We really need at least 3 cooks per day, and right now we don’t have that many on hand regularly.”
What does it take to be a Meal A Day cook? According to Karon, “You just need to be able to stir a pot, cut up a dessert or put food portions into the take-out boxes. You don’t have to wash dishes, you don’t have to be a pro chef and you don’t have to come up with any recipes or plan meals because we have all that in place. It just takes teamwork and a dedication to serving our shut-in senior population, and Meal a Day is blessed to do a quality job of that. What will you be paid? I tell people we pay you in love and cookies! And a lunch if you want one.”
Volunteering is fun and rewarding. To sign up to be a volunteer cook for one or more mornings mornings per week, just call the Seniors Center at 903-885-1661 and talk to Karon.
