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Local Semcac Senior Dining Site observes 35 years of service
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
In 1973, Richard Nixon was president. Rod Carew was setting a major league record for stealing home. The Purple People Eaters were tearing up the NFL for the Vikings. Afros, plaid pants, and platform shoes were all the rage.
1973 was also the year the South Eastern Minnesota Citizens Action Council (Semcac) Senior Dining program was launched in 15 sites in the 11-county area. Caledonia was one of those first communities to offer a senior dining center.
The senior dining center was originally located at Water’s Cafe in downtown Caledonia. It remained there from 1973 until 1980, when it was moved to the United Methodist Church. For the past 28 years, the local Methodist church kitchen and fellowship hall have been a flurry of activity every weekday morning.
Semcac Senior Dining Site Manager Sandy Moger and staff are busy preparing approximately three dozen meals each day for not only those who dine in the fellowship hall, but also for shut-ins who have Meals on Wheels delivered to them in Caledonia, and for persons at dining sites in Spring Grove, Eitzen, Mabel and Canton.
The Caledonia site prepares about 9,000 meals each year. A second Semcac Senior Dining Site is located in La Crescent. Between the two sites, 23,000 meals are prepared annually for Houston County residents.
Moger and her staff, which includes assistant cook Joyce Bolduan, back-up cook Nancy Schroeder, and drivers Loren Hartley, Red Stark, and Leonard Wiegrefe, do so much more than just prepare, serve, and/or deliver meals to hundreds of senior citizens in Houston and eastern Fillmore county each week.
In an interview conducted by former Argus intern Courtney Gran, Moger, who has served as site manager for the past 10 years, stated:
“I like to cook and I enjoy the people, but I get involved because I really care. It is about the sociability. These people can get together and this way they don’t have to be at home by themselves. It helps balance their lives out.”
Moger and crew also find time to include fun and games at Senior Dining. Generally they do a pillow cleaning fundraiser and have also been known to do a pastry fundraiser. They play bingo every week and occasionally go on bus trips. They also celebrate Christmas in July and December as well as all of the other holidays at their respective times.
“At our Christmas parties we do white elephant gifts. At our last party one of our ‘young’ ladies opened her gift and she got a neglige,” Moger added.
Moger urged anyone who would like to join should do so, and become part of the fun. “People are becoming more self-sufficient longer. I had a 90-year-old mother-in-law tell me she wasn’t old enough for Senior Dining. There isn’t a certain age you need to be. You are only as old as you feel.”
The Semcac Senior Dining Site in Caledonia recently celebrated its 35 birthday with a party. A large crowd was on hand to commemorate the day. Semcac has 58 Senior Dining Sites in 11 counties in Southeast Minnesota.
For more information about the Senior Dining program, contact Sandy Moger at 725-5330.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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