Lamar Senior Center provides fresh produce to neighbors with the help of Ozarks Food Harvest
When is the last time you tasted a cucumber? What about an orange or an apple? For one home-bound Lamar senior, she couldn’t remember the last time she had tasted fresh produce. After a mistake with her normal home-bound delivery service, she travelled to the senior center one Friday afternoon to get food.
When she arrived, volunteers and staff greeted her and filled up a grocery bag full of food. They offered her fresh vegetables and fruit, but she refused, saying she didn’t want to take from someone else. Eventually, staff convinced her to take home a large box full of fresh produce, milk, bakery items like sliced bread and more.
“She was so excited to get fresh milk with cereal [instead of powdered milk]!” said Lamar Senior Center Nutrition Program Manager Stormy Cuba. “She was so excited for fresh fruits and vegetables. We told her to take a few apples and oranges, too!”
Stormy said that the ability to give fresh produce and milk to their seniors comes, in part, from their partnership with Ozarks Food Harvest. “Fresh fruits and vegetables that we just take for granted, that’s why we love our jobs and our partnership with Ozarks Food Harvest… We get to give people that,” said Stormy.
Lauren Thornton, the Lamar Senior Center manager, said seniors are often forgotten in the conversation on food insecurity. With the help of local officials and businesses, as well as local partnerships like Ozarks Food Harvest, the Lamar Senior Center is able to “have a voice for the elderly” in the area and serve them all, whether they’re home-bound or not.
One group of older women picks up fresh produce at the end of the week and cans it before giving it away to neighbors who need it. “The older generation is not inclined to ask for help when they need it, but they are also extremely resourceful and good at conserving food,” Lauren said.
Ozarks Food Harvest is proud to partner with the Lamar Senior Center to help create impactful moments for generations of families and individuals in the Lamar area. More information on their work can be found at aaaregionx.org/activities.