SENIOR NEWS: Mobile Food Pantry Service Available for Seniors

Thank you, friends and community, for your ongoing support of the Pagosa Senior Center. To provide additional options for dining with us, we will now be open for service Monday through Thursday for dining in, and the pickup option will be available throughout the week as well as Friday. We do ask that you please call or text us and indicate if you will be dining in or picking up a Grab-n-Go when you leave your message. For more information contact us at 970-264-2167.

Mobile Food Pantry Service Available for Seniors
The Pagosa Senior Center would like to remind the community about our mobile food pantry services we provide in partnership with Archuleta County MET to seniors age 60 and older throughout most areas of Archuleta County. In order to participate in this program, community members must visit with Barbara Noriega at the downtown Senior Center located in the Ross Aragon Community Center to fill out an application to qualify for hot meal delivery service and/or the mobile pantry service. The application, called the dining assessment form, is also available on our website at the bottom of the Community Cafe page http://www.psseniors.org/community-cafeacute.html. For more information contact us at 970-264-2167.

Big Band Benefit September 23
Save the date! Put on your dancing shoes, and join us for an evening of Be-Bop and Boogie Woogie Big Band Era Music. Featuring Bob Hemenger and Debbee Tucker along with other talented musicians. We have some great prizes for our raffle! Proceeds will benefit the Archuleta Seniors Inc. and the Pagosa Senior Center. Tickets for the event are available at www.pagosacenter.org

Farmers Market Vouchers for seniors continue to be available and now $50 is offered instead of $25! If you love to shop at the farmers market, are 60 or older, or if you are 200% of poverty please call Debbie at 970-403-2164 at the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) to put your name on the list for $50 in vouchers to redeem for local foods. Then visit the Pagosa Farmers Market any Saturday during the growing season (June – September) to pick up your $50 voucher to support the local food artisans and growers in southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico. The Pagosa Farmers Market is located on the 3rd row of the East Side Market and is open only on Saturdays from 9 am – 1 pm through September.

Text Us @ 970-264-2167. The Community Cafe is now accepting text messaging for meal reservations, cancellations and/or communication of any kind. When texting, please include your name, phone number and the days you want a meal. If you are calling to cancel a reservation, please include your name, phone number and the days you want to cancel. Texting services are available for dining-in meal reservations, Grab-n-Go meals, and Meals on Wheels recipients.

Medicare Call by Appointment
For anyone who needs help enrolling and navigating Medicare plans, we help with Parts A, B, and D. We can also help you with fraud concerns and troubleshooting any billing issues you may be having. By appointment only. Please call our Medicare line at 970-264-0501; ext 4.

Kitchen and Desk Volunteers Needed
The Community Cafe at the Pagosa Senior Center is requesting volunteers to help with greeting customers. Please call or text us at 970-264-2167 to volunteer or for more information.

Community Cafe Menu
Thursday, September 15 – Teriyaki salmon with fried rice, sauteed zucchini, dinner roll with butter, garden salad and fruit.

Friday, September 16 – Yankee pot roast with vegetables, wilted spinach, garden salad, fruit and Mississippi mud pie.

Monday, September 19 – Ginger lime shrimp with jasmine rice, Caribbean beans, tropical fruit salad, garden salad, fortune cookies.

Tuesday, September 20 – Beef spaghetti with green beans, focaccia bread, garden salad, fruit and german chocolate cake.

Wednesday, September 21 – Barbeque Chicken with cornbread, baked beans, garden salad and fruit.

Thursday, September 22 – Hawaiian pork with peppers, coconut rice, black beans, mango salad, garden salad, and fruit.

Friday, September 23 – Vegetarian potato and onion tart, braised red cabbage, garden salad, fruit and carrot cake.

Grab-N-Go Meals Reservations and cancellations are required. Please call or text by 9:00 am the morning of the day you want to pick up a meal. A suggested donation of $5.00 helps to sustain our program. No one will be turned away for their inability to donate. For ages 59 and younger, the cost is $10.00. Please call or text us at 970-264-2167 to make a reservation.

Meals on Wheels
We deliver fresh Meals on Wheels five days a week (and provide frozen Meals on Wheels for weekends) to homebound Archuleta County residents. Call or text us at 970-264-2167.

Requesting Donations
ASI has an immediate monetary need to support ongoing operations and programming that provide critical services to some of the most vulnerable in Archuleta County. Please consider donating to Archuleta Seniors Inc. You may mail your donation to PO BOX 3444, Pagosa Springs CO 81147 or please visit our website: http://www.psseniors.org/. Donation checks can be written to: Archuleta Seniors, Inc. We are located at 451 Hot Springs Blvd., in downtown Pagosa Springs. For more information about ASI, please visit http://www.psseniors.org/.

ASI Board of Directors has one vacant position open for financial oversight and policy implementation for the organization and senior center staff. Terms are 3 years with an option to renew for an additional term. Potential candidates should be at least 55 years of age or older and must have a passion for adult and aging services.

Rosa Chavez

Rosa Chavez

Rose Chavez is Executive Director for Archuleta Seniors, Inc. and Public Health Consultant at Archuleta Food System/Food Equity Coalition.