The Salvation Army Older Alaskans Program.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: ALASKA THIS MONTH: DINING

Since 1965 The Salvation Army Older Alaskans Program has offered a wide variety of services that help support frail seniors and those with disabilities over the age of sixty in maintaining an independent lifestyle as they age in their own homes," says Older Alaskans Program Director Debbie Comiskey.

In addition to providing transportation and homemaker services, one of the major components of this program is to deliver meals to homebound people. "Without this program many older Alaskan seniors would go hungry in our community," Comiskey says. "For some of our clients this is the only meal of the day they will eat; they depend on us daily."

To get a sense of the scope of the program, between July 2014 and June of this year the program delivered 110,000 meals. In a month, the program on average will distribute 9,000 meals to a range of 350 to 550 clients.

The meals are delivered either chilled or frozen: chilled for weekday meals and frozen if the client qualifies for weekend meals, Comiskey says. Both chilled and frozen meals can be reheated in a microwave or oven. "Each meal also gets a daily newspaper, a carton...