The Dominion Post: $1.8K Grant Helps Senior Center with Food Delivery

An $1,800 donation from Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC will help the Marion County Senior Center with its food delivery service. The donation was made in honor of HMS’s 18th anniversary.

Leah Heimbach, president and owner of HMS said the senior center was chosen for the donation because it proves much needed service for local seniors. “I believe it’s important to give back to the community,” she said. MCSC Assistant Executive Director/CFO Donna Alley said the senior center wants to use the funds to go toward the purchase of a new truck. 

The old one no longer keeps the food at the needed temperatures.Alley said trucks used by the center are expensive because they are specialty vehicles built and equipped with space for cold and not meal items. She said the new truck will be used to deliver meals to 150 homebound seniors. The truck is supposed to be delivered Wednesday. 

Alley said the center will pay $17,000 toward the cost of the truck and the state will provide the remainder of the funds. She said homebound meals are not the only meals the center provides. “We serve grab-and-go meals to 75 other people,” she said. “These are people who would normally come to the center for their meals.” Alley said the meals held at the center prior to the pandemic were called congregate meals.

“We call them congregate meals because the seniors spent time talking, playing games, doing puzzles and listening to the speakers who came to talk about topics of interest,” she said. Heimbach said she found a unique way to involve her staff in fundraising.”For 14 years, the staff wanted casual Friday and I kept saying no,” she said.

“They finally wore me down four years ago. I told them if they wore jeans on Friday they each had to donate $2.” Heimbach said the casual Friday money is saved, and when there is enough for a donation the staff votes on which organization the money goes to. She said one of the organizations HMS has “adopted” is a skilled nursing facility for veterans.

“One year, we set up a carnival for them. Once, we did a fall festival, and once we collected toiletries,” she said. “The staff also collected money and bought two large-screen TVs for the facility.” Heimbach said she believes it is important to protect seniors and other members of the vulnerable population. 

“I am close to several older people I went to church with. Now I can’t visit them,” she said. “My father is in an assisted living home, and I can’t visit him.” Heimbach said no senior should have to worry about falling through cracks in the system. 

Donations can be sent to the Marion County Senior Center at 105 Maplewood Drive, Fairmont, WV 26554.