14Free Episode 5 - Bennington Senior Center

I am thrilled to launch this video of our visit to the Bennington Senior Center Cafe and their Meals on Wheels program on the same day that our new 3SquaresVT Advocate, Faye Conte, joins our team. With only a third of eligible seniors participating in 3SquaresVT, Faye will focus her outreach and advocacy on increasing senior participation in the benefit program. Many seniors do not know this, but 3SquaresVT participants age 65 or more or getting SSI can use their benefits to pay for Meals on Wheels as well as for meals at senior meal sites. 

At our visit to Bennington, we heard first-hand from participants in the program about how important Meals on Wheels are for home-bound seniors. Not only do the meals offer a nutritional source for seniors who need healthful meals in order to stay in good health, but they also offer a social component for the participants—as well as for the volunteer drivers who are often seniors themselves. For many, the visit from the Meals on Wheels driver may not only be their only meal of the day, but their only social interaction of the day as well.

As Eileen Elliot, a co-chair of our Chittenden County Hunger Council, once said, "We need to feed our seniors for all they’ve done for us and all they have to teach us." I look forward to working with Faye and our 3SquaresVT advocacy team to ensure that every senior has the nutrition they need for their health and well-being.