ORANGE — It’s back to school for area residents 60 and older, as the Mahar Senior Dining Club approaches its first month of existence.
Ralph C. Mahar Regional School has partnered with LifePath and the Orange Council on Aging to offer nutritious meals to senior citizens on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with the program having kicked off on Sept. 15.
“I think it’s going really well,” Elizabeth Zielinski, superintendent of the Ralph C. Mahar Regional and Union 73 school districts, said in the cafeteria on Thursday following a grand opening celebration. “Anywhere from 20 to 40 are showing up … every day. It depends on what the meal is.”
The program is funded through the Older Americans Act Title III-C1 Congregate Nutrition Program and supported by the state Executive Office of Aging & Independence. Mahar students set the tables, fold napkins, distribute silverware and wash the linens after each lunch, and Zielinski said Key Club members greeted guests at the door on Thursday.
Any senior citizen, regardless of where they live, can visit between noon and 1 p.m. Doors open at 11:50 a.m. There is a suggested $3.50 donation per meal, but no one is turned away due to lack of funds. There will be no lunches offered on half-days and days when school is not in session.
“It seems to be very popular,” Food Service Director Katrina Bressani said. “We actually had to cap it [at] 40 participants, because that’s what we can fit for seating [and] that’s the amount of extra meals we could do comfortably.”
She said the most seniors the program attracted was 50 people on “turkey dinner day.”
“I think there’s some surprise about the high quality of the meals that we serve. There is definitely some appreciation for the program. Some of them can see their grandkids here, which is fun for them,” Bressani added. “There’s a great social component. We have people who come in who don’t eat and they just sit with someone, just to socialize.”
The main meal on Thursday was baked North Atlantic haddock with butter-lemon bread crumbs, as well as wild brown rice and roasted squash grown on a Hadley farm. The alternatives were sloppy joes and pizza. Visiting seniors enter the same lunch lines and eat from the same menu as students. The older folks have a separate seating area.
“That was a beautiful [meal] today,” Orange senior citizen Nancy Carruth said after finishing her haddock.
She and friend Natalie Danek, also of Orange, have attended nearly every lunch since the program started.
“I think it’s great,” Danek said. “And I think it’s great that the kids take part. I’ve got to tell you, that has impressed Nancy and I very, very much.
“The problem is we hear all the bad on kids,” she continued. “There are good kids in this world and, my gosh, they need to be admired, you know?”
The grand opening celebration was attended by some LifePath employees, Eladia Romero from U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s office, and state Rep. Susannah Whipps, who is also a classically trained chef with a degree from Johnson & Wales University.
“I am so impressed with the quality of the food — local produce, which I think is fantastic. And a lot of the seniors here haven’t had a congregate meal since they closed over at the armory” in 2021, Whipps said at a lunch table. “I mean, our biggest concerns right now with regard to hunger are young people and seniors, so to have them all under one roof enjoying a fabulous meal, I think is really important.
“I’m so happy that this is happening,” she added. “It hasn’t disrupted anything that’s gone on here at school.”
Whipps recalled how it wasn’t uncommon when she went to high school in the 1980s to get “a dry, overcooked burger on a stale bun.”
Gary Yuhas, executive director of LifePath, spoke at the grand opening celebration and expressed his gratitude for Mahar’s culinary team.
“Their efforts in preparing a meal that people want to experience and look forward to enjoying is a key component of making this program so successful,” he said.
Yuhas also thanked the students involved in creating the welcoming dining area.
“And we all have deep appreciation for the older adults who were willing to try something new and who continue to show up,” he said. “This is truly what community looks like.”
