By Sandra Coopersmith

For a real-life demonstration of synergy in action, the smiling faces tell the story when Culver City’s Senior Nutrition Program and the Exceptional Children’s Foundation combine forces.  

Located in Culver City, ECF has been dedicated to improving the lives of people with special needs since 1946. It currently provides programs and services to over 2,000 infants, youths, adults and their families each year, serving clients with developmental, learning and emotional disabilities through its 16 program sites in Los Angeles County. 

“In its 65th year of service, ECF is Southern California’s leading organization for meeting the needs of developmentally challenged individuals at every age,” said Steven Rose, president/CEO of the Culver City Chamber of Commerce and member of ECF’s Board of Directors. “I’ve been a volunteer with ECF in some capacity for the past 30 years. Volunteering with ECF gives me a sense of not just helping, but of giving ECF clients the tools for success in their special lives.” 

“We had been trying to boost our clients’ participation in community activities,” said Helen Lewis, ECF’s program manager, “so I looked for volunteer opportunities in the Culver City Volunteer Directory provided by Culver City’s RSVP Program and saw the listing for the Senior Nutrition Program at Culver City Senior Center.”

In addition to serving 85 on-site senior meals at its nutrition site at 4095 Overland Ave., the Senior Nutrition Program delivers meals to 22 homebound Culver City residents over the age of 60.

“Now we have 30 clients alternating five days a week at Culver City Senior Center and another 10 clients who volunteer with the food program at Grace Lutheran Church,” said Lewis.

“This has been a win-win situation because our clients don’t work but love being in a work-like situation. They are so gratified to be performing an important service and the people who receive their meal deliveries are really appreciative and very respectful of our clients,” she said.

 “Part of my job is to recruit volunteers to deliver the meals,” said Barbara Silverstein, nutrition project assistant, Senior Services Division of Culver City Parks, Recreation and Community Services.  “They must be enthusiastic, friendly and personable, and enjoy working with others.”

And that’s where the ECF clients, together with their own driver/coordinator, fill the bill and keep the program running smoothly.

“I don’t have a worry about our senior clients being OK and they love getting their food delivered,” Silverstein continued.  “Sometimes the only contact a senior has in a day is with the volunteer who delivers their meals.”

Each volunteer learns the stops on the three routes that cover all of Culver City. Volunteer drivers provide their own vehicles. Meals are delivered five days a week and frozen meals can be substituted if a senior doesn’t plan to eat immediately.

The menu varies daily and the well-balanced meals are cooked off-site and delivered to the Nutrition Site in hot or cold packs, which the ECF clients repackage for individual delivery to the seniors.

Silverstein also described the phone assurance program. Three times each week she or one of her volunteers telephones each senior client or the client’s family to make personal contact and see how they are doing.  “If the senior is not at home, I call the emergency contact to make sure everything’s OK,” she said.

In a companion program unrelated to ECF that also includes volunteers, approximately 100 seniors are served lunch at the Nutrition Site. Volunteers fill plates from a steam table and runners serve the seniors individually at their tables so that no one has to stand in line.

Silverstein has been with the Senior Nutrition Program for five years since retiring from a 33-year career with JC Penney. Running the project is demanding for this part-time city employee, but very satisfying.  “There are certain things you love to do and I love the interaction with the seniors. My job allows me to have personal contact with them all,” she said.

“I’ve tried other food programs, but I prefer the quality and range of foods I receive from the Senior Nutrition Program,” said Rhoda Dobson, who has been with the program for about five years. “I rarely go out because I have to use a walker,” she added.

Although spinal stenosis keeps Dobson out of the kitchen due to the difficulty with standing, she still makes her own breakfast and lunch. Since the first two meals of her day are light fare, she saves her delivered meal until evening when she enjoys a full dinner with all the trimmings.

For Sharon Evans-Brissette, whose edema and high blood pressure keep her from standing or walking, the Senior Nutrition Program was a real life saver because, as she admitted, “I wasn’t following my doctor’s recommendation to cut down on sodium.”

But confining her salt consumption to the modest amount used for Senior Nutrition meals did the trick. “My blood pressure is very good now — 122 over 80,” she said.

Since Evans-Brissette must use a wheelchair when she leaves her apartment because of muscular sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, she is very grateful for the hot meals delivered to her during the week. Also grateful is her husband Ralph, who cooked for his wife until two years ago before  she began receiving meals through the Senior Nutrition Program. He sometimes drops in to the Nutrition Site for his own cooked meal.

“I love to eat, so I love this program,” said Evans-Brissette. “The food is delicious.”

The ECF clients who volunteer in the Senior Nutrition Program prefer it for a variety of reasons. 

“I like to get along with the people — they are up in age and glad to get the food,” said Marcel Alston. “It makes me feel appreciated.”

Matthew Arnoff likes delivering meals best because, he says, “we each get a turn.”

“I love it because it makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile,” said William Moten.