When Campus Kitchen first partnered with Family and Community Services to bring weekly dinners to Kentway Apartments citizens, they ate in silence, stated Kentway’s activities coordinator Jackie Flannery. “It turned into like ingesting dinner in a library,” she stated. But less than three months later, the citizens’ energetic chatter almost drowned out a live musician’s songs.
Family and Community Services purchased Kentway Apartments, a subsidized dwelling community for humans 55 and older, almost years ago and has considered that it sought to enhance the lives of its residents, Flannery said. The opportunity to do this emerged when the countrywide Campus Kitchen approached Kent State’s bankruptcy with a $5000 supply and asked it to use the cash to interact with older populations.
Since February, the bankruptcy has added nutritious meals and companionship to Kentway residents every Tuesday night. On Tuesday, April 23, Campus Kitchen Kent State and Family and Community Services celebrated this software they’ve considered, Kentway Cafe, with cake and a live track.
“Not handiest are we feeding them. However, we’ve 15 to 20 volunteers every week that come and dangle out with them,” stated senior nutrients important Robert Guard, Campus Kitchen Kent State’s manager. “We have a few people that have made relationships. They sit with the identical individual every week, bringing joy to these people’s hearts.”
He stated that this weekly dinner certainly gives one of the few reasons to get out of their room for some residents. Seeing them excited to devour and socialize, he said, brings joy to his heart simply as it does theirs. He said that the meals for this program, donated primarily from Trader Joe’s in Woodmere, will often become available on short notice so that instruction might be demanding. However, Guard travels with drivers to Woodmere, regularly more than one instance each week, for groceries to supply Kentway Cafe and different Campus Kitchen tasks.
Freshman nutrients principal Sarah Morris has volunteered at Kentway Cafe on a few instances because it started. She volunteers in this precise program because she values getting to know citizens, she said. “It’s truly notable because as soon as you come right here a few times, then you get to recognize a few people,” Morris said. “They’re quite tons regulars. They’re buddies, you see.”
That interactive thing of this unique opportunity surprised her, she stated. “I clearly didn’t recognize what to anticipate after I got here,” Morris stated. “I concept it changed into a normal volunteer opportunity, like a soup kitchen or something you don’t actually get to engage with people.”
Senior vitamins principal Olivia Kimball additionally finds value in constructing relationships with Kentway residents. “Everyone is aware of something that you don’t recognize, so you get to examine it with the aid of serving it,” Kimball stated.
She stated that the community thing is particularly unique to Kentway Cafe and distinguishes this application from others. She’s grown near one unique resident, she said, because he has granddaughters around her age. She seems forward to bringing him birthday gifts and speakme with him every week, she stated.
“A lot of those human beings don’t have a ton of circle of relatives to return to, so you adapt to them,” Kimball said. “They’re greater than grandparents. You feel cherished, and all people remember you.”
