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09/24/2020 12:00 AM

Estuary Council of Seniors Receives New Food Truck


Estuary Council of Seniors, Inc., kitchen staff, including Meals on Wheels Coordinator Laura Robbins; Food Manager Aaron Pratt; kitchen staff Adam Chamis, Peg Barrett, and Marilyn Matthews; and Transportation Coordinator David Traskos line up against the council’s new food delivery truck. Photo courtesy of Heather Milardo

Thanks to the generosity of local funders, the Estuary Council of Seniors, Inc. (ECSI), received a new food transport truck.

The new food transport truck was funded in part through grants received from The Westbrook Foundation, The Community Foundation of Middlesex County, Essex Savings Bank, Essex Community Fund, and Clinton Rotary Foundation.

ECSI currently prepares and distributes more than 80,000 meals each year to four congregate meal sites, the residences of 360 home-bound seniors, and senior service organizations like adult daycare centers. These meals are all prepared in-house daily, by hand, by a team of dedicated staff and volunteers. This ensures that the meals being sent to participants each day are fresh, hot, and ready to eat.

In order to deliver them that way, a food transport truck is used. This new truck will ensure that this service continues uninterrupted as well as allowing the previous vehicle’s expanding maintenance costs to go back into the nutrition program.

By providing this essential nutrition service, ECSI is able to help seniors maintain both health and wellness, as well as independence. ECSI advocates for and provides for their basic needs, thereby reducing the likelihood of them being institutionalized. Providing proper nutrition also reduces their risk of disease and chronic health conditions. The service goes beyond providing a meal, though. It is providing social connections for seniors, whether that be the driver that is delivering their food each day, or the friends that they see at the meal sites.