Elderly nutrition to move congregate meals to The Gathering Place

Jasper County Elderly Nutrition will be moving its congregate meals from Monroe City Hall to The Gathering Place due to low attendance at the former facility.

Kelli Van Manen, program director for elderly nutrition, told the Jasper County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 21 the congregate meals site in Monroe has been at city hall for years. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the location never rebounded and had only served about four in-person meals on a regular basis.

While the four people who show up are very dedicated to attending congregate meals, Van Manen said she needed to make a change. The Gathering Place, located in the former Barber Lumber office building at 113 S. Monroe St., opened up an opportunity for elderly nutrition to find a new space.

For $200 per month, elderly nutrition will be able to reserve the space for its congregate meals. But Van Manen said meals won’t start until start Feb. 1, 2024.

“This has moved a little slower than I thought it would,” she said. “But I’ve got to get it licensed. Even though we’re preparing the meals in Newton, if we’re serving them there we have to have a licensed facility. It’s going to take me a little bit. I’ve started as far as I can go without being approved on the licensing.”

In addition to the four dedicated residents who will show up for meals, Van Manen said another dozen have committed to going to the congregate meal site. Which means 16 people could show up every day. Van Manen said the county can re-evaluate this trial run again in July and go from there.

Supervisors were in favor of the move and ultimately voted 3-0 in support of the contract between the county and The Gathering Place. Supervisor Brandon Talsma spoke highly of the venue; he attended a recent fundraiser that was held at The Gathering Place and was impressed by it.

“Really nice place,” Talsma said.

Van Manen added, “It is really nice. They’ve done a great job with it. They already have some programming that we can tap into. And we can bring in some programming that we have access to through Aging Resources, so I think it will be a win-win.”