The Garfield County Board of County Commissioners on Monday approved a contract with Valley Meals and More for a full-service food support program for seniors residing in eastern Garfield County. 

On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, Valley Meals and More delivers warm, ready-to-eat meals to eligible adult residents over 60 years old in eastern Garfield County, including Glenwood Springs, West Glenwood, Carbondale, Missouri Heights, El Jebel and the Crystal Valley. The organization averages around 520 meals a week, according to Executive Director Mary Kenyon. 

Through Valley Meals’ new contract with Garfield County, seniors will have access to congregate and home delivered meals from “a single source dedicated provider who has always been committed to the health and wellbeing of the seniors,” Kenyon said. 

Beginning in July, Valley Meals and More will provide and deliver meals for the Older Adult Meals Program in eastern Garfield County. With an annual budget of $244,760, the county will fund 320 meals per week for a year. This includes five deliveries of meals prepared by Sodexo at Colorado Mountain College (CMC) Spring Valley to three congregate meal sites — CMC’s Lucy Huntley Senior Center and Sunnyside Retirement Center in Glenwood Springs and the Orchard at the Gathering Center in Carbondale — and 40 packaged meals for home delivery four days a week.

Valley Meals and More will also offer medically tailored meals and a “produce parade” every other Wednesday, where seniors can take home fresh produce, at congregate meal sites. 

“In the congregate setting… the county’s been providing services at three locations, delivering about 160 meals each week,” Kenyon said. “This new contract brings those 160 meals at the three congregate sites under the Valley Meals umbrella. In return for us providing service for those meals, the county will be funding 160 of our meals each week, so that’s a great benefit to us as well.”

The contract was an extension of a prior arrangement between Valley Meals and More and Garfield County. On March 24, commissioners Tom Jankovsky, Perry Will, and Mike Samson unanimously agreed to allocate $33,000 to Valley Meals and More to reimburse the organization for 160 meals a week for low-income, homebound seniors aged 75 and above until the end of June.

Now, about 30% of Valley Meals’ home delivered meals will be funded by the county for the next year. 

“We’ll continue to seek additional funding to support the other 360 meals each week, but the support from the county is significant, and it’s much appreciated,” Kenyon said. “It allows us to be more sustainable and expand our efforts to more older adults. So the more efficient we are, the more older adults we can serve given the same funding.”

After a difficult beginning of the year for Valley Meals and More — which at the time was operating with a $8,000 a month funding deficit — the new contract is a significant boost that will help stabilize the nonprofit’s funding base.

“It was a long time coming, but I feel honored to be selected for a sole source contract, because that really means that they trust us and that they feel that we’ll be a good partner, and that our program and services are good for the citizens of Garfield County,” Kenyon said. “That’s why we feel honored to actually be awarded this contract.

“I think July is one of those seasons of growth and fresh starts,” she added. “So I think…Valley Meals is ready to move forward with renewed energy and purpose, now that we know that the county supports what we’ve been doing in eastern Garfield County.”

Visit garfieldcountyco.gov/human-services/senior-menu/ for more information about Garfield County’s Older Adult Programs.