Positively Speaking: Paying tribute to my father

By Melanie Lekocevic

For Capital Region Independent Media

RAVENA — The years-long COVID-19 pandemic hit many businesses and populations hard, but perhaps none more so than seniors and the organizations that serve them.

For Senior Projects of Ravena, the combination of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising prices due to inflation have depleted the group’s resources and left the staff trying to rebuild after a difficult time.

“We are hurting — we are using all of our extra money up, so we are looking to set aside additional funds to hold us over in emergencies,” said Director Terri Albano.

“Three years ago, we had $100,000 in our savings account,” Albano said. “We had to put a furnace in and that cost $30,000, and the rest of it was used up just to make it – we are down to $7,000 or $8,000 now.”

Senior Projects is funded by the county and state, by donations and through payment for meals from seniors — though no one is ever turned away for lack of the ability to pay — but funding is not sufficient to cover the group’s needs in the event of an emergency, particularly with the depletion of its resources over the past couple of years.

“We don’t always get paid exactly on time every month, so if there is a month where the check doesn’t come in, we need something to pull from until it does and that’s what is worrying me — we don’t have that,” Albano said.

Senior Projects was busier than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, but instead of serving congregate meals on site, workers had to drive to hand deliver meals individually. Several workers continued to work and deliver meals even though they weren’t being paid at the time, Albano said.

The shutdowns also put a stop to all fundraising activities for a time, so additional funds were not being raised.

“With COVID, all fundraising stopped so everything that we were doing up until then wasn’t being done for a good two years,” Senior Projects board member Darlene Mergendahl said.

When Senior Projects opened its doors to the public again, they were faced with another problem — seniors were afraid to go out in public for fear of the virus that had kept them home for so long. And that meant fewer meals sold on site, going from around 100 meals a day to a couple of dozen.

“When we opened back up, we might have had 30 or so people coming to dinner, but the rest of them, it took a long time for them to start coming back,” Assistant Director Lakken Kovacik said. “We are building back up and it is starting to get better, but we need to continue building financially to be stable. All it takes is for one thing to go wrong — if we need a new roof, furnace, air conditioning, repairing one of our vehicles.”

Vehicles are another concern — the aging vehicles that deliver meals around Albany County and beyond are getting expensive to maintain.

“We are now getting to the point where the cost of repairing the vehicles is more than the cost of getting a new vehicle,” Mergendahl said.

Along with the pandemic’s impact on fundraising efforts and how many meals are sold, Senior Projects has also had to contend with rising prices of food, utilities, insurance and other items.

The cost of milk alone was $16,000 last year, insurance rose by $7,000, and car insurance costs another $10,000 for the year, just to name a few.

The organization’s bill for food supplies went up from $124,000 annually to nearly $145,000 a year compared to five years ago, Albano said.

The increase in minimum wage also had an impact, Mergendahl added.

“Everyone got a dollar an hour raise when they raised the minimum wage,” she said. “That alone has increased to a huge amount.”

The staff has been working to come up with ways to raise additional funds for Senior Projects and recently held a brainstorming session with members of the community.

One local resident has been creating gift baskets that are raffled off to raise money.

“She puts together baskets. She put in her own time and her own money to create an Easter basket, which we raffled off right before Easter,” Kovacik said. “She also did a basket for Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and she says she will keep doing it as long as we need it.”

Senior Projects’ service to the community goes beyond their facility at 9 Bruno Boulevard.

“We do another lunch program at Civill (Senior Housing) in Coeymans at 12 o’clock every day. Then we also go to Van Allen Apartments in Glenmont every day at noontime, and we deliver to two apartment buildings in Albany,” Albano said.

The facility delivers 15 congregate meals to Civill, 15 at Van Allen, and 45 at Parkview and 24 at Townsend in Albany, she said.

Anyone with ideas to help raise funds and support of Senior Projects of Ravena is encouraged to call 518-756-8593 to offer their suggestions. Any seniors that have a need — even if they think Senior Projects can’t fulfill that need — is also encouraged to call because even if they can’t help with the need, they can likely direct the individual to a place that can, Kovacik said.

Senior Projects offers congregate lunches at 9 Bruno Boulevard in Ravena on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at noon, and dinners on Mondays and Thursdays at 5 p.m. Call 518-756-8593 for more information.