Once every month between October and April, the Kersley Community Association works with students from the local Elementary School to cook lunch for seniors.
The seniors are bussed from Dunrovin Park Lodge, Quesnel’s long-term care facility, to the Kersley Community Hall on the second Thursday of each month for their meal.
Donna Campbell, one of around five regular volunteers with the program says: “[The kids] love it, they can hardly wait. And they learn how to cook. We teach them lot — like about vegetables — so by the time they start home economics in Grade 8, they know a lot.
“It’s a really great outreach [program] in the community that the kids absolutely love. And it teaches them to get along with seniors and to give back.”
And Campbell says it is not just the kids who enjoy the program — the seniors love it too.
Students set the tables, chop the vegetables, pull together the salad, make the dessert, cook with the help of some community volunteers, serve the meal and then help clean up.
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Ranging from Grade 5 to Grade 7, the students all go through Food Safe training and get their Food Safe certificate before they are able to help cook.
The program originated in 2004, when Dianne Maybee moved to the area from Victoria and wanted to continue to work with seniors as she had before. In 2013, the program evolved to include the students from Kersley Elementary School.
The school received a grant for students to earn their Food Safe certification, and for the grant, they are then supposed to give back to their community.
Once the students have their Food Safe course, they operate in two groups. One group comes earlier in the morning, sets the tables and begins chopping vegetables and preparing for the meal. They leave the hall around 10:15 a.m., and the second group arrives just after 11 a.m.
The second group finishes preparing the meals for the seniors and then serves them. This group also gets to eat with the seniors.
Each month the groups alternate, so the one serving the food will set the tables instead, and vice versa.
While they eat, there is also entertainment. Local bands, like the Nelson Brothers, come in and perform for the seniors. In December, Kersley Elementary students also perform Christmas music for the seniors.
heather.norman@quesnelobserver.com
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