CNNSSA Celebrating 25 years ....of service to the community.
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Information on Home delivered Meals, Cafe Dining, and Volunteering throughout Cook County.
Tom Tesdal, President of First Midwest Bank, passes out meals to seniors at the Saratoga Tower Apartments in Morris Wednesday for the March for Meals event. March for Meals is put on by the Community Nutrition Network and sponsored by the Meals on Wheels Association of America to raise awareness of senior hunger and encourage communities to take action. (Herald Photo by Lisa Pesavento)Tom Tesdal smiled Wednesday as he served plates of fried chicken to residents of Saratoga Tower during the annual March for Meals event put on by the Community Nutrition Network and Senior Services of Grundy County.
“The people here are great,” said Tesdal, president of First Midwest Bank. “This is such a good cause and I’m happy to be able to help.”
This was Tesdal’s first year serving at the event. But, he said, he knows the scenery — his maternal grandmother lived in the building.
“She moved in from Melrose Park a few years after [Saratoga Tower] was built,” Tesdal said. “And she just loved it.”
He and a handful of other community members, including Morris Mayor Richard Kopczick, United Way Executive Director Karen Nall, and Grundy County Housing COO Wanda Wren, served and ate lunch with the seniors.
According to Diane Bumgarner, regional coordinator of the CNN and Senior Services Association, the goal is to raise awareness of senior hunger.
“In this economy, a lot of seniors are going hungry,” Bumgarner said.
Bumgarner said other March for Meals events were held this month.
Events took place at the Coal City Lions Club Community Cafe, Minooka Grandma’s Community Cafe and the Mazon American Legion Community Cafe.
Servers at these events included Braceville Mayor Jim Homa and Diamond Mayor Teresa Kernc.
“[Community leaders serving] gets awareness out there about the program,” Bumgarner said.
Nancy Murley, who works for the CNN and lives at Saratoga Tower, volunteers at the lunch each year, and said those who attend it have a good time.
“It’s doing something for a good cause,” Murley said. “That’s what it all comes down to.”
Tesdal, as he enthusiastically served the meals, echoed that sentiment.
“These people helped us out so much when we were younger,” he said. “Now, it’s our turn to help.”
Many older adults need only a little support to stay in their homes, but when that isn’t available they can end up in an expensive nursing home where they don’t need most of the available services. According to a new study, states that invest more in delivering meals to seniors’ homes have lower rates of such “low-care” seniors in nursing homes, after adjusting for several other factors.
But the percentages every year vary widely between the states. A major reason for that state-to-state variation turns out to be the difference that home-delivered meals can make. The researchers wrote that their analysis boils down to this ratio: For every $25 per year per older adult above the national average that states spend on home-delivered meals, they could reduce their percentage of low-care nursing home residents compared to the national average by 1 percentage point.
Until her grandmother died in October, she was able to live at home despite suffering from macular degeneration that made it impossible for her to cook.
On August 23rd, we hosted our annual volunteer recognition luncheon for Suburban Cook County. The event was held at the Crystal Sky Banquet facility in McCook. 230 volunteers, officials and special guest joined us for this event. CNNSSA honored all 200 volunteers and recognized 33 honoree volunteers.
The hall was beautiful with the red napkins on the tables, the favors and centerpieces. Tony’s Finer Foods donated 25 Strawberry Shortcakes for our dessert. The cakes were displayed on candlelit pedestals on each table along with a cake topper that showed the 25th anniversary logo on it.
As our guest arrived Zacbe was playing beautiful background music on the harp. Ann Cooper gave the welcome speech and then Anderson Weathers did the blessing of the food. Everyone had plenty eat with the brunch buffet. When brunch was completed we moved on to the recognition of the honorees. Each of the honoree’s was called up to the stage to receive their certificates and gifts and posed for a picture with Ann. After all of the honorees had received their gifts we had distributed gifts for all of the volunteers. Nobody went home empty handed.
The finale of the day was entertainment by Mestas entertainment. Lori Mestas put on a show called Making Your Life Count which is what our volunteers do every day. She began with a tribute to all of our volunteers, putting on a Meals on Wheels Shirt and singing and dancing to a song she customized for our volunteers. She then honored several other women going back 100’s of years with song and dance.
This wonderfully joyous event would not have been possible without the support of the Russell and Josephine Kott Memorial Foundation.
