For several years, seniors in the Perry area have been able to take part in the weekly fellowship meals every Wednesday at the McCreary Community Building. However, until recently the program has been lacking proper organization.

Parks and Recreation Director John Anderson recently brought a proposal before the City Council to set up a senior fellowship fund that would be run through his department, and allow for more checks and balances on the finances. The change was brought about following the retirement of the original cook for the meals, and the senior fellowship board asked Anderson to help find a replacement. Through their discussions, Anderson determined putting the meal under his jurisdiction was the best route in order to make the program in compliance with state auditing requirements.

The proposal was approved by the Council, and Mayor John Andorf feels the new system should work well for everyone. He emphasizes that the weekly visitors shouldn’t notice any differences. “Nothing’s really going to change with the program itself. The same board’s going to manage the meals, and we’re still going to have great Wednesday meals and continue on as we have. But we just needed to have some management under the City to keep it operational, to keep it going forward. Because the concern was that if we didn’t do that, we may not be able to continue it. And nobody wants that, especially those attendees.”

Andorf adds, having the fellowship meals under the City’s jurisdiction could help expand the program’s footprint to include more activities and special guests each week. It will also allow the City to seek state grants for funding, which Anderson says will be key in making the meal program a completely self-sustaining operation.