The daily congregate meal program held in the Buckham West dining room has seen changes since we had to close our building in March. In order to reduce contact, there is still no meal served in the dining room and has been replaced by a curbside pickup instead. If you are 60 years of age or older and would like to participate in this meal program, here are the steps:

  1. Call 332-7680 (kitchen number) to order a meal for the following day.
  2. Plan to pick up your meal between 11:30-noon on that day.
  3. Park your car in the parking lot on the west side of Buckham West.
  4. In order to avoid contact, do not come in to the building for your meal. The doors to Buckham West will not be open to the public. Your meal will be brought out to you in your car.
  5. The number of meals will be tracked on an order sheet in the building and a donation request letter will be mailed to each meal recipient at the end of each month. Cash donations or green punch cards are not accepted during this time. Meal cost continues to be a suggested donation of $4 for those people 60 and over.

New clients are certainly encouraged to take part in this critical program. Here’s how:

  • When you call to place your meal reservation order, please indicate that you are a new diner.
  • There will be some questions that you will need to answer in order to get started utilizing this curbside pickup meal program.

Please note! Because of a mandatory kitchen staff meeting, there will be no curbside meal available on Wednesday, August 19th. You may order an extra cold meal as a replacement, which will can be picked up on Tuesday, August 18th

 

Coffee Party Success

Thanks to the over 60 individuals who attended our second “Coffee Shop Reunion” which was held last week in Faribault’s Central Park. We were happy to see so many of our members and friends once again.  We are hopeful that we will see you again soon, either back in the park or in our building!

 

Free Legal Education

Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) is a non-profit organization that provides free legal help to eligible older adults. They also teach about legal rights. Until SMRLS staff can visit groups in person again, they are inviting interested older adults to join them for an event presented by SMRLS Legal Advocacy for Older People (LAOP) on the topic of “Abuse Awareness: Protecting Yourself, Protecting Others”. You can register online at www.smrls.org or call them at 1-888-575-2954 weekdays between 9 A.M. and 3 P.M.

Participants will learn:

  • Types of elder abuse
  • Risk factors and signs of abuse
  • How to help someone that may be being abused
  • How to help themselves prevent or end abuse

Along with this educational class, there are other interesting and helpful clinics that they have available for your use. Take advantage of this professional service by checking out the class offerings that they have available.

 

Clothing Donation Plan

Since Fashions on Central, our gently used clothing store which is located in downtown Faribault, is the main funding source for Buckham West, it was vital that we opened our store to the community as soon as possible. And so, we were happy when we were able to re-open to the public in June. The store hours have been modified and we are now Tuesday-Saturdays from 11:00-5:00pm.

The next step in the re-opening plan has been to allow the community to resume the donation process again. There are many considerations that go into creating this plan including the safety of volunteers who are sorting the clothes and the anticipated large amounts of clothing that will be donated. In order to mitigate these concerns the following guidelines have been put in place:

  • Through the month of August, donations are accepted exclusively on Mondays and only by appointment.
  • An appointment must be made in order to drop off your donation and can be done by calling the store at 334-9242 during open store hours.
  • A maximum of two bags/boxes of clothes will be accepted at a time and only wearable items will be accepted.
  • Plan on giving your name and phone number when you make your donation.

In addition to donating, we also encourage the community to resume shopping in our store. We have an abundance of high-quality summer clothing on hand for men and women.

 

New Updates

Every week we continue to update our organization’s operations. Here’s what’s new!

  • Coffee Shop- Our most well attended activity is still the riskiest for our membership. Trying to spread people out in the room and keep the surfaces clean is so challenging that we are not able to open up our building for coffee drinkers quite yet. The board has directed that we review this again at the next meeting on August 10th.
  • Foot Clinic, Caregiver Support Group and Meditation Group- We have added these three programs back in to our schedule again. If you want more information please call us with your questions.
  • There are also many exercise classes that are being offered through Faribault’s Park and Recreation Department. These include several classes in our fitness studio and also in the pool. There are class size limits though, so call them at 334-2064 to reserve a spot.