Senior Citizens Meals
Presho”s population includes approximately 27% seniors age 60+ years. This is the age group a Senior meals and Meals on Wheels type program administered thru Rural Office of Community Services (ROCS) would benefit. November 16, at a “taste testing” trial of this program, 32 people participated, and a survey taken of that group indicated between 15 and 20 of them would expect to eat there any given day once we get the program up and running. Most of our Seniors recognize that having home delivery of meals available could mean living independently in their homes longer and it could improve the quality of their senior years.
Presho, along with Kennebec and Reliance will need to share a “Hot Shot Truck” to transport these meals from the facility in Chamberlain 5 days a week. We have formed an oversight board for Presho consisting of Janada Ramser, Norma Johnson, George Hubbard, Sandi Neil, Denny Keyes, Bette Ruemann,and JeanAnn Brakke and Dawn Keyes, chairman. Anyone wanting to be a part of this board please contact Dawn Keyes @ 895-2334. The board made application for a Schoenhard Foundation grant to cover our share of the Hot Shot Truck and we are hoping to start serving meals by mid January.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
We have formed a board of eight to organize and oversee the new “Presho ROCS 2″ senior meals program. First order of business was an application for grant money for startup costs. More interested parties are encouraged to get involved and help us brainstorm our way to success. We will be using volunteers for various projects in the startup phase to get the program off the ground. Our momentum is building with more applicants for meals and encouraging comments coming from many sources. Questions, suggestions, observations are requested so that the steps needed to reach the desired goal are fruitful and painless. Primary contact for information: Dawn Keyes
November 26th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
I really like this idea. I was actually looking online last night to see if meals on wheels delivered in Whitewood. The closest to us is Rapid City. Maybe I should start looking into the costs for our area and if there would be a need and an interest.
November 29th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I am interested in being on the meals for people .
December 21st, 2007 at 8:28 am
According to this weeks newspaper we did get our grant request for funds for the transportation vehicle–(Presho’s share of the cost) $1000. Hurray and thank the Lord and Schoenhard foundation. Please see the advert in the paper this week also for a driver for this vehicle. We hope this job will workout for someone here at home. We have a board meeting today @ Zion Lutheran Church at 1:oclock to discuss the next steps. We are still hopeful of being up and running very soon possibly by mid Jan. Anyone who wants to be involved in these discussions and decisions is invited. I am very excited and feel we are being blessed by the way this is coming together for our community. We will need some volunteers along the way to take care of the day to day stuff (delivery of MOW for any home bound or just those who don’t need to be out in bad weather etc., tallying and banking daily receipts tidying up the eating site, and such). If you would like to be apart of this great addition to our community please contact Dawn Keyes or any of the Board members.
December 21st, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Congrats on the grant!! Thank you for all your hard work to bring this program to Presho!
December 23rd, 2007 at 6:50 pm
At our board meeting Friday we chose Jan 14th as our target start up date. The main thing that could slow us down is hiring a driver for the delivery truck. This is a 3 hour mid day job–perfect for the stay at home mom who’s kids in school and she just wants a part time job while they are gone and to be available when they are home. 5 days a week, $9.40/hr, no insurance but personal time accrued with time served. Tell everyone you can think of that this job would work for. There is a box advert in the local paper with more info.
December 28th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Congrats MOW board!! It’s amazing what will power, prayer and people can do, isn’t it? This is such a great project and I think will be a boon to our community!! I wish you all the best. You have my full support and if there’s times I can be of help I will. Let us know what help is needed so that those of us that have full-time jobs might see if there’s somewhere we can help.
January 24th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
The Artesian Senior Meal Program just celebrated its first anniversary on January 8th. In the past year, they have served 1,976 meals! Their average attendance is 21, with as many as 32 attending at times. The meals are prepared at the Middle School in Mitchell and are delivered to the Artesian Community Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Dawna/Sanborn Central