The Green River Area Development District (GRADD) accepted the 2019 Rural Achievement Award at the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) 53rd Annual Conference and Exhibition in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 11th.
NARC’s Rural Achievement Awards recognizes excellence in programs and service of regional councils and metropolitan planning organizations.
Owensboro Health Regional Hospital approached GRADD with a problem: they discard 300-500 meals a week, and wanted to find a way to assist the older adults in the region while reducing their food waste.
Meanwhile, the Senior Community Center of Owensboro Daviess County makes food deliveries to homebound seniors Monday through Friday, but not during the evenings or on weekends. GRADD connected these organizations, provided technical assistance, and encouragement to help them work together to provide frozen meals for homebound seniors.
To date, the program has helped provide 8,542 frozen meals to homebound clients to provide evening and weekend meals. There are about 60-90 seniors receiving two frozen meals every weekend.
The program has been so successful, the Kentucky Department of Aging and Independent Living are currently working with GRADD to find a way to replicate the program statewide.
“It is such a great honor to be able to recognize the valuable contributions of my colleagues …we know that this work can be slow, frustrating and challenging at times, but we also know how valuable it is to our communities and how rewarding it can be.” said NARC President Geof Benson during his remarks at the dinner.