The Chandler Senior Citizens Center dining hall will reopen on July 6.
Due to COVID-19, the Center closed its dining room hall. The Center opted to create and use a curbside service to pass out the meals it has been passing out for a plethora of years.
For over 12 years, Project Heart has worked with the Center handling all that comes with the meals.
Liz Simmons is the site manager for this Center, and has been for the past 12 years. She continued to work with the Center throughout its COVID-19 journey.
“I like that they like to come in and visit. I think it’s life-giving,” Simmons said.
Simmons works closely with Project Heart, but there is a nine person board that works to keep the Center running at its best. Chandler locals, Barbera Wyes and Opal Hoover, are integral to that board.
“As of July 6th, we get to come back inside and actually talk to people… which is a good thing for old people,” Wyes said.
She is the Senior Board Chairman and has been since 2010. Hoover works with the books and has since 2018. They make sure that all the legal needs for the Center are met.
The Center serves one meal a day at 12 p.m. from Monday through Friday.
It is not planning on keeping the curbside pickup model after July. It offers a homebound service as well. The route currently serves roughly 20 homebound meals, and about 10 churches volunteer to take out the food. Once the dining hall reopens, the community driven events that were offered before COVID-19 will resume.
“We play games and dominoes. There’s usually a puzzle going on,” Wyes said. Wyes relayed that her favorite thing about the Center is the people, and Hoover agreed saying, “It’s been a long year.”
The Center is dependent on donations and fundraisers, to be able to keep doing all that it does for the community.
Not only does it do fundraisers, but it also rents out the space to those who are interested.