Celebrating Older Americans Month With Our Amazing Seniors

Every May, the Administration for Community Living leads our nation’s observance of Older Americans Month. Meals on Wheels of Lancaster honors Older Americans and encourages you to celebrate with us.

The 2019 theme, Connect, Create, Contribute, encourages older adults and their communities to Connect with friends, family, and services that support participation, Create by engaging in activities that promote learning, health, and personal enrichment, and Contribute time, talent, and life experience to benefit others.

CONNECT:

This year’s Older American’s Month theme of “Connect” seeks to connect aging adults with friends, family, and services. Meals on Wheels of Lancaster recognizes the value of connections; We believe that senior hunger is a product of social isolation. Therefore, we recognize that what we deliver is more than a meal: our meal delivery volunteers make sure to spend a few minutes with each meal recipient each day, checking up on them and listening to them. In an effort to alleviate the social isolation that many of our meal recipients experience we have developed a new social visitation program, “The Social Call,” to connect volunteers with Meals on Wheels of Lancaster participants for ongoing visits. If you or someone you know would like to volunteer to be a friend, email Hayley@MealsOnWheelsOfLancaster.org

This month, we want to highlight Marian, who receives meals from Meals on Wheels of Lancaster. She is a recent widow, a participant in the Social Call program, and stays connected with Betty, who visits with her weekly. Through the program, she is able to connect with a friend who visits regularly

Marian (right) with her visiting volunteer, Betty (left)

CREATE:

The Older Americans Month theme “Create” seeks to engage older adults in activities that promote learning, health, and personal enrichment. At Meals on Wheels of Lancaster, we are proud to actively promote the health of our senior meal recipients by serving nutritious meals that allow them to live independently in their own homes.  

Because of the daily meals that Marian receives, she is able to maintain her creative lifestyle. She is famous for the coloring pages that she completes and gives to her grandchildren, friends, and Meals on Wheels volunteers.

Marian getting creative through coloring

CONTRIBUTE:

The final theme of “Contribute” seeks to enable aging adults to contribute their time, talent, and life experience to benefit their community. At Meals on Wheels of Lancaster, we provide countless opportunities to volunteer with us. In fact, a large portion of our volunteer force is made up of retirees looking to give back. Want to join them? Visit https://mealsonwheelsoflancaster.org/volunteer/#opportunities or call us at 717.392.4842.

Finally, our spotlight on Marian brings us to her contribution to the community. In her free time, Marian crochets tiny hats for newborn infants, and donates them to various hospitals. At the time I spoke with Marian, she had made over 3000 hats! She is a great example of an older adult who is using her time and talent to give back to her community.

Marian Posing with on of her completed baby beanies

Communities that encourage the contributions of older adults are stronger! By engaging and supporting all community members, we recognize that older adults play a key role in the vitality of our neighborhoods, networks, and lives.

Learn more about Older Americans Month at  https://acl.gov/oam/2019/older-americans-month-2019