By Michael Howell
A grand opening was held at the Hamilton Council on Aging building last Friday to celebrate the new kitchen facility where meals are prepared for the council’s Meals on Wheels program. Not only is there a lot more elbow room for the cooks, there is a new walk-in freezer, an associated cooling room, and a motion sensor faucet at the sink.
Anywhere from 30 to 50 meals are prepared daily and delivered to seniors in their homes in Sula, Darby, Grantsdale, Hamilton and Corvallis. Every week somewhere between 250 to 300 meals are delivered.
“Some people only get three meals a week, other people get them seven days a week,” said Meals on Wheels cook Lisa LeBeau.
Executive Director Paul Travitz said the old kitchen area would be turned into garage space to be used by the delivery vehicles. There are seven delivery routes in the south/central part of the valley. The garage also supports an array of solar panels that were installed with a grant from NorthWestern Energy. On a sunny day it produces about 8,000 watts of electricity.
“That produces about one-third to one-half the power we use at the facility,” said Travitz.
He said the next big project would be to remodel the kitchen in Victor.