Lunch program to leave JCC, destination unknown

THE Loup JCC has confirmed that the VOA kosher lunch program for seniors, a treasured weekly staple at the community center, is exiting the building.

While there are some indications that the Allied Jewish Apartments will now host the senior meals, JCC Executive Director Stuart Raynor is non-committal.

“The community is figuring out a way to sustain the lunch program, and that can take time,” Raynor tells the IJN. AJA Director Michael Klein has been “part of the conversation” examining options for the senior meals, “but I can’t speak for him.”

Klein, who is currently in Israel, is scheduled to return one day before a much-anticipated meeting with seniors April 3 at the JCC.

“Ideally, we’ll be able to tell the seniors the outcome on April 3,” Raynor says. “If there is a decision, we’ll let them know. If not, we’ll let them know that too. We are awaiting the final word, but it is our hope that we’ll have very positive information.”

Raynor says that internal budgetary constraints at the JCC forced the center to close the meal program.

“When we examined our budget, we realized the JCC could no longer fund the senior meals,” he says. “Yes, there will be a change in the lunch program — but we don’t know what form this will take right now.”

The kosher lunches, served Monday through Friday, represent a partnership between the JCC, Allied Jewish Federation, Shalom Cares and Volunteers of America (VOA).

Seniors are asked to make a $2.50 donation per meal if they can afford it.

Raynor estimates that the actual cost of cooking, preparation, transportation, set up, clean up, paper goods and dishwashing comes out to $19 per meal.

“That’s a lot of money,” he says.

For the 2011-2012 fiscal year, the JCC earmarked $82,000 out of its $205,600 federation allocation for seniors — $22,000 for the senior exercise program, and $60,000 for the lunches.

The $82,000 figure, which paid for 89% of the senior program, was the highest amount requested for a single JCC program. Additional programs included children’s camping ($41,000), Ranch Camp, Camp Shai and Israeli schlichim ($31,600), and teen resident camping ($51,000).

According to the federation, the JCC did not request any funding for seniors in its fiscal year 2012-2013 proposal but did submit other program areas for consideration.

However, JFS has requested allocations for “JFS at the JCC Colorado Senior Solutions,” a senior programming alliance established between JFS and the JCC in April, 2011.

This might allay fears expressed by some older adults that senior programming is the next item on the JCC chopping block.

Both Raynor and JFS President and CEO Yana Vishnitsky stress that senior programming will not be impacted.

“This is primarily about the meals,” Raynor says. “The JCC and JFS have no plans to alter existing programs, and we actually want to build and grow them.”

Vishnitsky agrees.

“Programs will stay completely intact,” she says. “If anything they will expand. Seniors are very valued in our community, and we try our best to demonstrate this year in and year out.”

SENIORS contacted by the IJN would not use the word “valued” to describe their treatment over the last few weeks. Most feel as though they’ve been left out of the loop — and at least one agency leader agrees.

“Information is still coming out in dribs and drabs,” says AJA resident Doris Beck, 83. “We don’t know what’s fact or fiction. We’ve never really been consulted about anything — but that’s nothing new.”

Although Beck no longer attends senior lunches at the JCC, she’s upset.

When she relocated to Denver from Los Angeles eight years ago to be closer to her daughter, Beck moved into the AJA but went to the JCC senior lunches “because that’s how I found out the latest community news.

“But now we can’t find anything out about the fate of the meals programs, which is really sad.

“We should have been invited to the meetings. For some people, this lunch was their only opportunity to have one good meal a day.”

If the lunches move to the AJA, Beck anticipates trouble, at least regarding parking.

“Parking at the AJA is impossible,” she says. “There is absolutely no place for visitors to park. And many older people use walkers.”

Jack Latkin, a student in the Yiddish class at the JCC, says he first heard the center might discontinue the lunches three weeks ago.

He’s also noticed that his class is often forced to move somewhere else at the last minute to make way for other events.

“Every time we go to class” — 12:30-2 p.m. two Tuesdays a month — “we’re never sure where we’re going to meet. Upstairs, downstairs, you never know.”

Jack Fischer, 65, is enrolled in the JCC’s current events class on Friday. “A month ago, I received an email from the JCC announcing there would be a meeting about the lunch program,” he says. “Then they cancelled it.”

Fischer says that a representative of the JCC eventually spoke to the seniors “and told us what was going on — basically, that the lunches cost a lot of money.

“I feel the JCC has a responsibility to its seniors,” he says. “Whether two or 2,000 people attend those lunches, it’s a time to talk and be together. And seniors need stability.”

Last spring’s press release announcing “JFS at the JCC” promised that older adults would have an “active voice” in determining programs and activities, and that an advisory committee composed of seniors would regularly convene to discuss “any and all changes.”

However, Vishnitsky says that seniors have been excluded from ongoing discussions about the meals.

“They are not part of what’s happening now,” admits Vishnitsky, who adds that JFS wanted to involve the seniors much earlier.

“The JCC felt we should not announce anything until we actually knew the details of where the meal program was going,” she says. “We disagreed on that issue.”

Vishnitsky says that the ensuing confusion has resulted from barring seniors from the process. “Now they are all wound up, and this is very unfortunate.”

ASKED about dropping seniors from the JCC’s 2012-2013 federation allocation proposal, Raynor says the JCC has slashed programmatic funding “across the board, from children to seniors.

“Budgetary cuts have hit every department at the JCC. It’s not just about seniors. If our employee health insurance goes up 15% or 20%, that’s a huge amount of money.

“We’ve cut programs. We’ve cut staff. We’ve cut as deep as we can cut,” he says. “Expenses have soared. Scholarships have skyrocketed. Yet the money we bring in stays the same.

“This financial struggle is affecting virtually every Jewish non-profit. No one should be surprised by this.”

Raynor, who acknowledges that senior programming generates less income than activities targeted for children and teens, dismisses the suggestion that finances might cause the JCC culture to trend heavily toward youth.

He will say that seniors regularly partake in venues intended for the general public: author appearances, book signings, the fitness center and swimming pool. These events “attract considerable senior attendance,” he says.

“A meal is primarily an expense item. And the senior lunches have been struggling for five years.” He says it’s probable that “another organization” will request money to fund the congregant lunch.

“The goal of our conversations with AJA, JFS, the federation and Shalom Cares is to find the most sustainable solution” to the meals situation “so we don’t put seniors through this period of doubt year after year.”

Vishnitsky says the real issue has little to do with meat, potatoes and bread.

“Lunch is a great opportunity to socialize, but it’s not really about food in this instance,” she says. “It’s about having a place to be together.

“For seniors who live alone, isolation is the most difficult thing in the world.”

BUZZ Krovitz, 73, eats lunch at home before attending the bi-monthly Yiddish class at the JCC. While he loves the joys of Yiddish, he loves watching seniors forget their troubles over hot food and coffee even more.

“Every time I come here I see approximately 30 seniors enjoying lunch, laughing, kibbutzing, socializing,” he says. “They’re happy. I also see men playing poker — kibbutzing, laughing, enjoying themselves.

“It heimische. It’s good. Why ruin something that’s good to save a few bucks?”

Doris Beck wants the JCC to hold a fundraiser specifically benefiting senior programs.

In addition to raising money, she says it might drive home a philosophical point.

“When you consider the age of Denver’s Jewish seniors, we’re old enough to be the parents of the people running the JCC,” she says. “Wouldn’t you help your parents if they needed it?”

Jack Fischer knows he’s a lucky man. He has a wife. He can drive. He attends adult education classes at DU.

But he realizes that other seniors don’t share his good fortune.

“For some, the lunches are their only source of meaningful contact,” he says. “You have to stimulate your mind to feel alive.

“Judaism is about tradition — and I would be ashamed if our community discontinued the tradition of respecting its senior members.”

Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News