The Richmond Active Living Center has provided an under-served senior population for many years by aiding with in-home care, meal delivery, and emergency services to name a few. At the center, the seniors are offered a daily hot meal, physical activity classes as well as fellowship through sewing clubs, movies, pool tables and an extensive library to borrow from along with many other activities. With so many of this demographic living in seclusion for the last couple of years due to potential pandemic complications, the director of this facility reached out to the Madison County Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (Snap-Ed) Assistant Senior. She wanted to offer a nutrition education class that would give the seniors information about meal planning and budgeting, food safety and basic food preparation as well as general daily nutrition.

The Nutrition Assistant Senior was excited to share nutrition knowledge with this group, to give them control over their diets and food dollars as many of them were dependent on family to provide these basic life functions. A collaboration was formed, and it was decided that the Assistant Senior would come once a month for eight months. Each visit, the seniors were taught a nutrition lesson, given suggestions to make cooking for one a little easier, or cooking extra to make homemade healthy freezer meals and time to share tips and tricks with one another to encourage healthy habits.

At the end of the session, the SNAP-Ed Assistant Senior had each participant share something they had learned and applied in their daily life. Most of them agreed that learning to cook the same vegetable several different ways was an easy way to get more variety in their diets without spending or wasting food and money. One lady shared that she had learned how NOT to give herself food poisoning. During the food safety lesson, she discovered that she had been thawing, cooking, and storing meat incorrectly for many years, causing the meat to spoil before it could be used. She now knows that buying large cuts of meat at a cheaper price is more economical and has learned how to cook and store it for safe use later.