Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 10:22.mp3 Air date: 2026-10-22 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertiser, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. Tom Fitzsimmons, KNCO, OK, and it's good news time, just about 907, 55 degrees, lots of clouds out there. We've had some raindrops out there as well. And yeah, it finally feels a little bit more like fall. Nobody knows that better than Jay Chandler, who's my guest today, because he's come complete on with the little flat Irish cap on, jacket. You're looking good, Jay. He's the executive director over there, Golden Country Senior Services. Well, thanks, Tom. I have to stay warm, so I've got my hat on today. Yeah, it is kind of amazing how, because we were so warm for so long, even in the month of October, but it definitely has changed. And I have to share something with you. I had a busy morning so far today, because I've been, the last few days, getting radiation treatments over at the hospital, at the cancer center. And as I was checking out, right there on the counter, I saw things about the Sierra Gold Community Senior Center's senior lunch program, and also the activity calendar over there. That's great. Isn't that kind of nice? I didn't know if you guys put that there, or there's somebody that's proactively doing that. We definitely partner with them as well. We partner with a lot of non-profits in the area, and they're one of them that we have a good relationship with. Yeah, so they're the ones that post us. I thought that was great, especially, you know, it's funny, because they have nutrition needs for people that are battling cancer, and that's right down the belly with the senior lunch program. These are great meals. Yeah, and also, you mentioned that, and that's true. The senior lunch that we have at our senior center, Monday, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. But also, we do a program called Medically Tailored Meals, which that is when someone comes out, usually, maybe of the hospital, or just of a health crisis, and they have a specific diet that the doctor recommends that they have. The doctor can prescribe that particular diet, and then we can create meals that are tailored to that prescription. All right, and are they good-priced meals for the people that need them? Yes, very good, yes. Everything is low-priced at our center. No, that's what's wonderful, because they have a sign there for Comfort Cuisine at the hospital foundation, I think, does, up there, that are low-priced meals for people. Depending on what type of radiation they're going through, chemo, they might not have the strength to cook. Right, right, yeah, right. And those meals are also covered through Medi-Cal, and so there's a lot of that involved as well. It's quite a process, but we've kind of navigated all those requirements, and now we're up and running. All right, I noticed no one's here. Last time Leslie was with you, everybody abandoned ship, or what's going on over there? No, I just didn't get word to everybody. Next time, I'm going to invite Susanna, our manager of our senior center, on, because she has a lot of great information about our senior center, but today you just get me. Oh, no, that's fine, that's fine. This is a very busy time for you guys, especially because, you know, senior firewood program, it just takes like a cool storm or two to come by, and all of a sudden you think about, wow, we might have to get the chimneys cleaned and the fire lit up and stuff like that. Definitely, yeah, we actually had our first two, so we have, our senior firewood program delivers over 200 cords of wood to low-income or homebound seniors every year, and we just had in late September and then early October, we had our first two, what we call distribution days, where we delivered, you know, 40 plus cords of wood each day. The thing about that was, you mentioned the weather and stuff, it was very warm, in fact, very warm, the second day, October, it was very warm, and what happens is, is that people aren't really thinking firewood when it's so warm, so we have our third upcoming, our final distribution day actually on November 7th coming up. Yeah, that's like that very first Saturday of the month. Yeah, first Saturday of November, yeah, and so basically we need volunteers, we need people that have trucks, not necessarily trailers this time because we've delivered to all our homes that can take trailers, but people that have trucks especially, but we do need volunteers to help load and kind of pull that off, we have a lot of firewood left to distribute, so yeah. Alright, alright, so for people that are listening right now, they might have the availability and stuff, how do they go about getting signed up? Basically, for that, you just can show up, yeah, it's at our firewood lot, which is out there by the government building off of LeBar Meadows Road, it's from 9 to noon, so if you show up there, you can also call our office and talk to Sonja or others that are there that can kind of guide you as well, but really you can just show up and help load and stuff. Alright, did you have a chance to go out there when the first two events? I did, yeah, it was great, it was actually my first course because I'm still relatively new, my first two firewood events, and it was great, it was really a lot of fun, the first day, which was September, the last Saturday of September, a lot of the NU high school students were out there helping out, so it was really kind of fun, the second time we actually had a bunch of firefighters that were out there helping us out, it was great as well, yeah. That is nice to hear, now, I always love when the kids come out, because I love to see the marriage of kids helping seniors. Yeah, definitely, it's great, and I believe this next, this last one, the kids are coming out again, maybe some different kids, I know that the high schools have a program that they need to do volunteer work, and so I believe that some different teens are coming out this time around, but yeah, it is really great to see them out there. Alright, are you going to be able to get all the firewood out to people that are on the list? Yeah, that's our goal, I mean, probably not all on that Saturday, but whatever is left we deliver during the week, we deliver pretty much year-round firewood, so we will definitely get the wood to everybody that needs it, but that day we probably won't finish, because there's still quite a few that we need to get out there. Are there people always calling in to try to get on like a wait list and stuff too? Sure, yeah, there definitely is, and so yeah, if you call in our office or go on our website, you can see what that requires, but yeah, there's always people that need, we, you know, we have a, you know, a lot of our seniors that are on Meals on Wheels also need firewood to keep warm, because it's the only source of wood, of heat that they have in the winter, so yeah, there's always a demand, we've always been able to do over 200 cords of wood each year, so that's good, it helps them stay warm throughout the winter, so that's important. Alright, well I have to ask, how did the kids stay focused, is it the volunteers, like there's that group of guys that have been doing this thing for years, are they kind of out there doing this, doing that? So our volunteers are out there, it's actually, it's kind of a great day that volunteers talk about how the ones that do our firewood program all year long, they talk about how they get to see their hard work go out the door, and so yeah, but they're out there helping direct, we have a lot of our own volunteers and our staff that are out there to help guide everybody, and then Marty LaMarty goes out there with the teens as well, and he helps keep them focused too, so. Yeah, it's amazing how the kids stay focused, because they don't really goof off, which is a good thing, because they're throwing firewood around, so it's not the easiest thing. Yeah, but it's great when you see, you know, all those people out there helping, it's really a great thing, so. All right, well I appreciate everybody that's taking part in it, and again, it's the first Saturday in November, November 7th, about 9 or 10, what time do you have it? Yeah, 9 a.m. 9 a.m.? It's the time to start, yeah. All right, yeah, it's kind of a morning event, 9 to noon, and yeah, really, let's get this thing taken care of, because like I said, this is what happens, you get this type of weather, all of a sudden, it's on everybody's mind. Everybody wants the wood, yeah, right. Yeah, I mean high temperatures, instead of being like 85 for that second distribution. It was pretty warm, yeah. Yeah, more like 65 here, the last couple of days, so. We're going to take our first break here, we're talking Go Country Senior Services, that's Jay Chandler in the house, the Executive Director. We're going to take a quick break, we'll be right back. Hi, this is Jerry Serino. Thank you for voting Serino's at Main Street the best of, more times than any business in Nevada County. If you can't join us for lunch or dinner today, stay tuned to On the Town, and we'll keep you informed of the great changes taking place at Serino's award-winning restaurant. Remember, Thursdays, lunchtime, KNCO, Serino's at Main Street in Grass Valley. Hey, Nevada County, I'm Lucas Miharis. And I'm Jesse Etlin. We're the founders of Zion Capital, right here in your backyard. And if you've listened to Dave Ramsey, you know how important it is to have someone you can trust. That's why we're your local SmartVestor pros. Lucas was named one of eight finalists for Advisor of the Year by Investment News, and has been featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. And Jesse's been voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County four years in a row. We're backed by firms like Fidelity and Charles Schwab, so you don't have to drive down the hill. You can have Schwab and Fidelity right here in your backyard. That means you get a true hometown relationship with Fortune 500 muscle behind your plan. We work with everyone, from entrepreneurs building wealth, to retirees focused on maximizing income. We're working on the basics, showing you smarter ways to grow your money that most people never knew existed. At the end of the day, we meet you where you're at, and help you get where you want to go. Come visit us here in Grass Valley, or give us a call today at 530-955-5402. Zion Capital, a mission bigger than money. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC, a registered investment advisor, and separate entity from LPL Financial. This is your Nevada County Register of Voters, Armando Saludambris, urging you to return your ballot early for the November 3rd general election. You can return your ballot now at one of Nevada County official ballot drop boxes. You can also use Sign, Scan, Go. Fill out your ballot at home, bring it to a vote center, sign the roster, and scan it yourself. It's a fast, easy way to confirm your ballot was counted. Find vote center and official ballot drop box locations at NevadaCountyCA.gov forward slash vote here. Make your voice heard and vote early in the November 3rd general election. We all want to stay cool this summer, and no one wants to pay more to stay that way. The Beam Easy Living Center wants you to add a whole house fan to your cooling arsenal. It's way cheaper to run than your air conditioning. Once the sun goes down and the air outside cools, you open a few windows, turn on the whole house fan, sit back, and enjoy the breeze. The fan is on a timer, it can run all night if you like. The evening's cooler air flows through your house, up into your attic, pushing stale warm air out and cooling the entire structure of your home. All this happens while you sleep, with a cool breeze wafting through your bedroom windows. The next day, as it heats up, your home will take that much longer to warm up, which means your A.C. isn't kicking in as early, saving you money. Experience the built-in breeze of a whole house fan for yourself at the Beam Easy Living Center, 422 Henderson Grass Valley, so join the whole house fan revolution. Make this the summer you put the power of a built-in breeze to work for you. This Thanksgiving weekend, it's a hometown musical reunion. Nevada City's favorite hometown band, Golden Shoulders, joins forces with Nevada City's other favorite hometown band, the Moore Brothers. Grab the family, the extended family, and those friends you secretly like better than your family. It's one great night of live music, Saturday, November 28th, at the Center for the Arts in Grass Valley. Get your tickets at thecenterforthearts.org. Attendance is strongly encouraged, family drama optional. Wow. That was a Thanksgiving ad. KNCO Newstime, 919.56 degrees. Welcome back to KNCO Insight. Talking Gold Country Senior Services, Jay Chandler in the house. He's the Executive Director for Gold Country Senior Services, just looking at their senior lunch menu, because Thursday is when they have their senior lunches, along with Monday and Tuesday. The menus are pretty impressive, Jay. Yeah. We really try to have a lot of variety and healthy food, but good tasting food. Yeah, I mean, it's Tanzanian meatballs today. I'm not even sure exactly what that means, but it says, let's see, with spaghetti, California blend veggies, mixed greens, shredded cabbage, carrots, fresh peach. Those meatballs sound great. I mean, it's not just like regular meatballs. Yeah, definitely. We have our Nutrition Director, Tara. She's really creative. She does a great job of bringing variety, but also, like I said, it's very healthy, so we get a lot of compliments for her food. Are we still getting new people in there all the time, discovering the lunch? Definitely, yeah. You know, it's interesting. Last week, I was at the Nevada County Health Fair, Senior Health Fair, and I was there. Again, I'm new, so I don't always know what to expect, but I was there. We were there for about four hours, and it was a ton of people out there. The main thing that people wanted to know about was the Senior Center and the lunches and the activities that we do there, so that made me kind of rethink or at least think about what our focus is. A lot of times, we talk about Meals on Wheels, we talk about the firewood, all those things that are very, very crucial and important to our community, but thinking about how many people still don't really know what we have to offer at the Senior Center. It's still like that initial thing about getting them out there, opening up the door and saying hi and taking that deep breath in case they're, I don't know if scared is the right word, but they might be nervous and stuff, just going into a new place and stuff, but it sounds like it's totally welcoming and it's like a win-win if you find those people. I think they'll tell friends and probably just grow. Word of Mouth is our biggest way that we get the word out. Word of Mouth people that go there and experience the activity, the energy that's there, and then again the good food and all those kinds of things, but everything's set up for connection there. There's all kinds of classes that we do, health classes, yoga, different kinds of exercises, there's all kinds of games, Mahjong, big time Mahjong, that's a big thing at our center, and then there's all kinds of classes too that we give. In all that, there's a lot of activity, a lot of energy that people, and a lot of people, everything's set up to have connection for people. Do people that are at some of these assisted living or retirement type of villages and such, do they have a tendency to come down as well? Definitely yes. We get people from the different residents around for sure. I mean, because they have their activities and such, but there's something to be said about meeting new people and stuff, that's what's nice about having it in the middle of town. Yeah, and it is centrally located. So yeah, it's a place, and again, we have so much to offer. The biggest thing I learned, or maybe I was reminded of at the senior fair, was just that people don't really know what's there yet, and so continuing to tell them about the activities, the food, all the great things that are there is so important. All right, so do you guys meet as a staff and try to figure out how do we get the word out there more and stuff like that? We always do, yeah. We're always trying. I mean, one of the things anybody that has a business or a non-profit up here knows in this area, that getting the word out is one of the hardest things to do. And so yeah, like I said, the biggest thing really is when you get a word of mouth, when you get somebody who you know referring you to, for instance, the senior center, it's much more likely that you're going to go check it out for that. So that's our biggest. We always encourage our volunteers, we have a ton of volunteers, and our staff, we always encourage to reach out to friends, to neighbors, to whatever, and make sure everybody knows that we're there. All right, your mom and dad, I don't know if they're going to be, have they checked it out yet? They have not. Okay, no, because... I shouldn't say that. They did volunteer, both of them volunteered for when we did the fair this, in July, August. They actually volunteered at the senior center. We had people volunteering to prepare food there, so they were there. So they've been there, technically, but yeah. No, no, it's just that seniors aren't like what they used to be. No, not at all. Not at all. You know what I mean? They're like active, they got pickleball, they're doing whatever they're doing, right? And so it's almost like that kind of slowing down, and I don't know if it's, you know, they have to get somebody to really invite them there, or make something happen. Right. And I think you've said it before, and we've said it often, is that seniors, you know, people that are 60, 70, whatever, they don't really see themselves as seniors anymore. And so it's a matter of, it's not just a senior center for, you know, I mean, it's for everybody. It's a community center, really, but we, of course, we're geared towards seniors, but... Well, I was just, here's the truth. I was just on your website, and I saw the thing for the congregate lunch cafe, you know, we're talking about the senior lunches and stuff, and then how to join. And it says anyone 60 of age or older encouraged to join. And so that's the first thing I say, because literally my birthday today, I'm 68 today, right? So I'm going, wow, I made that by eight years? What the heck? But, you know, do I feel that old? Sometimes. Sometimes I do. Yeah, I've got a birthday coming up, and I'll be 55, and I keep thinking, gosh, I'm actually almost in that realm as well. But there is something to be said about being around people that have a commonality as far as life experiences and stuff, too, right? Definitely, yeah. Yeah, there definitely is. And again, it's an opportunity for people to connect. That's one of our main things. Our main reason for even buying the senior center, you know, rebuilding it, creating it, and now promoting it is because we want people to connect. You know, that's an important thing. Food's important. You know, warmth and all those things are in health are so important, but also connection is part of that. The human connection is such a huge thing for all of us. All right. The Monday, Tuesday, Thursday schedule for the senior lunches, that seems to be working well. Is it working well? Is there a chance it might shrink or expand? Anything like that? You know, it's basically right now based, I believe, around our home delivery, our Meals on Wheels program as well. Okay. So it's kind of based around that. At one point, not too long ago, we were kind of wondering if the communal meals were going to work or not. Yeah. But they've really grown over the last number of months, and so we're starting to sometimes getting to capacity, you know, and so we're having to rethink kind of what we want to do going forward. I mean, I think it's always great if we could expand. There are barriers sometimes to that with food costs and other things, but yeah, it's always the goal for us to reach as many seniors as possible in our communities. Well, it's just that the price of lunches and dinners, never mind, but even lunches, is pricey. Definitely. I mean, you go out there for a couple of people, it's pricey. These lunches are extremely affordable. Definitely, yeah. Yeah, $4 for seniors, and then if someone comes along that's not, let's say someone brings their kids or grandkids or whatever, it's $10 for meals without being a senior. Yeah, I mean, that's super affordable. It's like half the price of most places you could grab a lunch around here, you know, even fast food. Yeah, definitely. All right, so people just show up. That's the thing, right? Well, for meals, we recommend and we ask that you give at least 24 hours, so call an RSVP. Oh, okay. Yeah, because the thing is that we can't, like I said, we're getting to a place where I see that there. Yeah, RSVP by phone, 24 hours before. Yeah, because basically we're getting to a point where we're starting to max out a bit and some days, especially there's certain meals that are, you know, I think barbecue chicken is like the most popular meal that we do each month, and so that one maxes out, so you have to definitely get your name there, so we make sure we actually have the ability to serve you on that day. Yeah, I mean, just going through that, I see the barbecue chicken, yeah, matter of fact, that was last week, but they have meatloaf, they have chicken Dijon, they have chicken cordon bleu, they have some fish, Creole baked fish, yeah, California pork with apricot sauce, man, that sounds, I mean, they sound wonderful, these meals. They are very good, yeah. All right, so I think people should really take advantage of that, and I think once they get a chance, they just have to stop and say hi. Definitely, just come by and see it, talk to Susanna, she's our manager there, she'll give you a tour of the whole thing, our commercial kitchen is there, and then our main room where we do all our activities is there, but she'll give you a tour, she'll talk to you about all, she's happy to talk to anybody about everything that's available there, so yeah. All right, and how's the volunteerism been for, you know, as far as getting people out there to serve and clean up and bus up and all that stuff? It's been good, that's one of the things that we do, so we have volunteers that do, you know, we have what's called client services, which are people that greet, that, you know, answer phones, those kind of things at the senior center, but also there are servers that do, that serve the lunches there, of course we have the volunteers for Meals on Wheels, which is a huge, there's a lot of volunteers, 70 plus volunteers for that, and then the firewood program has, you know, 30, 40 plus consistent volunteers, and you know, basically we're always looking for new volunteers, but pretty much we have a great group that helps out, so. All right, well, since in the rear view mirror, not only the fair, but draft horse classic, things like that, looking at that, are you excited about next year doing those events again? I am, yeah, you know, I don't know, yeah, we're not, I don't know about the draft horse this, at this point, it was not, it wasn't quite as well attended, it was, I mean, for us, as far as Treat Street is concerned, the fair definitely, we're going to definitely be there for the fair, it's, as you know, it's expanded to eight days, and so it's going to be, there's going to be some challenges there, but we're already talking about how to meet those challenges, so, yeah. And I imagine extra volunteers, right, because I know probably all non-profits are going to go through that. Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of people, a lot of different non-profits that are kind of like trying to figure out, what are we going to do, yeah, we'll take more volunteers, I think, you know, for us, I think we had a lot of volunteers each shift, and maybe we can kind of cut back a little bit, because we didn't know what to expect as newcomers, so we might be able to spread it out a little more, plus we had, you know, other volunteers that were volunteering at the Senior Center to help prep food, and we kind of learned some things about that, so I think it's going to be, yes, we'll need more volunteers, but also we'll kind of spread out those that we have. Oh, yeah, and for people out there, it's July we're talking about. That's right, it is July, the first day of August, I believe, is the last day of the fair, I think. I'm telling you, that even has radio stations. Yeah. I'm wondering, what the heck are we going to do, that's a whole other thing. Anyway, let's take a break here for our news update at the bottom there, we're going to get a news update, weather forecast, and we'll be right back. Good morning, I'm Paul Haas with the KNCO Local News Update. The final step toward providing another major boost in reducing veterans' homelessness in Nevada County was approved by the Board of Supervisors at their Tuesday meeting. They ratified a $934,000 purchase agreement for a housing project in Grass Valley. They'll be at the former Stagecoach Motel building on South Auburn Street. Housing and Community Services Director Tyler Barrington said it was approved without comment on the consent calendar. The building, which is currently vacant, will be converted to 16 apartment-style units. None of those are restricted to veterans only. Currently, we're working with AMI Housing, who has obtained an architect to do the design and permits, and we would anticipate that to probably take a couple months. The anticipated close of escrow is sometime in November. Barrington says approval has been delayed several weeks to clarify tenant requirements to ensure they were relocated appropriately. Residents will receive comprehensive coordinated support that will include case management, mental health, life skills training, and peer support. And thanks to recent major financial boosts from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, Nevada County has been able to expand its capacity to restore forests and protect communities from wildfires. County Office of Emergency Services Director Alex Kiebel-Toll says a $229,000 conservancy subgrant has allowed them to hire a forest management advisor who has accelerated the planning process and project implementation in high fire risk areas. It allows us to really front load our project development process with a clear picture of what it's going to take. It doesn't mean you don't go somewhere because there will be challenges. You go where it's strategic, but it does mean that you're better informed about what the budget might be and what the timeline might be and what some of the considerations might be. And you know that on the front end of the process. Meanwhile, Kiebel-Toll says a conservancy grant worth just over a million dollars will improve protection for what's considered one of the most high risk fire towns in the Sierra Cascade, the little town of Washington. Join us for our next local news update at the bottom of the hour for news traffic and weather. Anytime, visit KNCO.com. I'm Paul Haas, KNCO Newstalking 30. Discover the stories that shaped Nevada County on History Unfolded, hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and myself, Mike Stewart, the special guests, the second and fourth Mondays at 9 a.m., brought to you by Amal Paint and Glass, serving Nevada County since 1949, and Smarter Broadband, local reliable high speed internet. Don't miss the voices, the stories, and the history that make our community unique, right here on KNCO News Talk 830. Why is my lawn still drinking like it's July? Good question. Even when it's still hot outside, it's a good time to check your water use. Check your irrigation timer, look for leaks and broken sprinkler heads, and don't forget to check faucets and toilets for leaks around the house. A small leak may not seem like much, but over time, those drops add up. Take a few minutes to make sure you're using water wisely. Nevada Irrigation District, serving our community since 1921. ACE is the place with the helpful hardware, folks. Need a hand with your next painting project? Your neighbors at BNC ACE Home and Garden Center are always ready to go that extra mile to help. Right now, you'll save $5 on a gallon of Benjamin Moore, Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines, Clark and Kensington, or Royal Paint, when you buy a color sample. Once you've chosen your paint, their experts will make sure you have the primer, applicators, and other supplies you need to get the job done. So you only have to make one trip, BNC ACE Home and Garden Center. This from the KNCO, BNC ACE Home and Garden Center Weather Center. ACE is the place. Occasional rain at times today, maybe a thunderstorm with a high temperature in the upper 50s near 60. More widespread rain continues into the evening and overnight, Arlo in the mid to upper 40s. Showers early on Friday, a gradual clearing sky with a high 64. Friday night clear and breezy, Arlo 44. Sunny and dry Saturday with a high in the upper 60s near 70. For more weather anytime, click on the weather center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Dan Holiday on KNCO News Talk 830. All right, KNCO News Time, 935, 56 degrees. Welcome back to KNCO Insight, a monthly visit with Gold Country Senior Services, Jay Chandler in the house, executive director, and yeah, we've been talking a lot about the Gold Country Senior Services programs about nutrition, in particular, senior lunch and getting you out there for the first time maybe. I think it's one of the goals as we especially change the seasons, you kind of hunker down a little bit more. Well, one thing you do is hunker down over at the Sierra Gold Community Senior Center right off of Colfax Avenue. It is a beautiful building. A lot of people haven't checked it out. I think once you do, you'll probably fall in love with it. One thing that goes on there is Meals on Wheels, right, because that kitchen is the one that's supplying it, and those drivers show up there. How does that run? I mean, that has to be kind of a finely tuned machine at this point. It really is. It's actually amazing. I got the chance early on at my job here, I got a chance to go over and kind of experience that. It really is an amazing process, but yeah, we cook all the food there. We pack it there. We package it there. We load it up, and Tuesdays and Thursdays we deliver meals. Tuesdays and Thursdays, okay. Yeah, and so basically we deliver five meals a week, and so it's three meals one day and two the other day. But yeah, that's what happens. We have, I guess, I think 70 plus volunteers. There's delivery people. We have 19 delivery routes, I believe, that go out all over Nevada County and deliver meals. We also deliver, you know, we have like emergency meals that we deliver to people so they have them. They're shelf-stable meals that we have in case of emergency. Oh, in case there's like a power outage and things like that. Right, yeah, or a big snowstorm or something like that. Yeah, snowmageddon. Yeah. So yeah, it's really an amazing thing, and I kind of, I went out on a route, actually get to go out on one of the routes, local, kind of in the city limits there, but it's just fun to go see what happens, and the stories that we hear from people, from our drivers especially that connect with people out in the community, it's just, it's really a great thing, so. Yeah, okay, well, what's the emotions like when you pull up and you're there, I guess, with the driver, like that time that you went out there instead of, I mean, what's the reaction of the people that are getting the food? You know, they're always, you know, it's interesting because they're always very, very thankful for the food, and that's the most important part, obviously, but again, I can go back to the connection part, and you know, this is another chance for those folks to experience, you know, a lot of those folks are homebound, they don't get out a lot, or maybe they're not able to get out at all, and they don't have maybe a lot of people around them necessarily, and so these drivers that go sometimes, that's like a friend that shows up, you know, for, and so they get to talk for a little bit, and you know, that's some of the greatest stories are when the drivers get to talk to the clients and interact with them like that. Yeah, do they end up doing, I mean, well, one thing, they're doing kind of a welfare check even if it's just saying hi, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, they are, for sure, yeah, because we keep track of that and make sure that, you know, if someone's not answering their door, if someone's not, you know, we keep track of that, and we make sure that things are going well, and you know, if we need to, we've had situations where we've needed to call in, like, say, adult services or whatever to try and check on them for, you know, those kind of things have happened. We do have case managers which go, which interact with our clients for, I mean, they kind of direct them to other needs as well if they have other needs, and so we're kind of a, yeah, we try and do as much as we can to help them out. Do any of them take on repairs? I could just see some people that, you know, like you said, they might have some limitations. They might be kind of frail and not able to maybe fix something. They might ask the driver, can you look at this, look at that, and they end up doing that. I could definitely imagine that, you know, yeah, I think, you know, obviously there's, you know, when we do our routes, you know, we need to get the food out, and there's maybe 15, 20 people on each route or whatever, well, not that much, maybe 10 to 15, whatever it is. That's still quite a few, though. Yeah. Oh, I didn't realize that, yeah. Yeah, so we have to get those things, those meals out, so we don't have necessarily a lot of time, but yeah, when there's a need, our drivers are always very, very helpful. Now, are you good with drivers, the amount of drivers you have, or do you always need drivers as far as, you know, even if people need a break or something like that on a vacation? Yeah, that does happen, and we have some drivers that are kind of set up, volunteers that are kind of set up to be fill-in when needed. Right. Yeah, I mean, when I, you know, I think about it, and we do, you know, there's always a case where, you know, someone's sick, someone's out, someone's on vacation, and so we, a lot of, sometimes our staff ends up driving a route or whatever because of need. So there's always, to me, there's always a need, especially for folks that are able to kind of be flexible and, you know, be almost like on-call if there's a driver that all of a sudden is out because they're sick, for instance. Yeah. Those kind of, so there's, and it takes a little bit to get set up. We have a process, you know, we do background checks and all those kind of things. Sure. So it's always good to get kind of set up for that, whether or not you're a full-time, you know, every week driver or just a fill-in. I imagine the people get turned on to it. Probably the reward to seeing the people and all that stuff, probably it gets very addictive where they really look forward to it. They do. Yeah, our drivers, I mean, I've heard many comments about that, about how it's, you know, it's their, they get really stuck, or not stuck, but they get really attached to their routes, right? Yeah. So they know the people on there. They know who they're delivering to and so, yeah, it becomes, like I said, a real connection between those people. All right. Of course, the price of gas has gone up and all that stuff. Do people pay for their own gas that are doing this too? We do offer to reimburse. One of the grants that we had, RSVP didn't re-up this year and so that was one of the things that helped us pay for gas. So we offer to everybody that drives, whether it's firewood or whether it's meals on wheels, we offer to reimburse gas. It is definitely an expense for them and for us that's gone up. So that's one of the things we have to obviously monitor as we go forward and find new ways to fund that because, like I said, the grant that was funding some of that is now gone. And that's the kind of nature of non-profits, you know, you have to always find new funding sources. Well, yeah. And it's been a tough atmosphere for the last few years, especially, it seems like it's gotten a little bit tighter and stuff. It really has. I was just thinking this morning, I talked to Tara, our nutrition director, the other day and she was talking about food costs and for our meals on wheels, the funding has been kind of flat over the last few years. And so that can be a good thing, but the problem is our food costs, she was just talking to me about our food costs have probably gone up 30 to 40% over the last year or two. And so it's becoming, you know, so you have these increased costs without any increased funding, you have to figure out new ways to support that. The only other option is obviously to serve less meals, which we don't want to do that. We already have a waiting list for our meals on wheels. We don't want to, you know, we don't want to increase that. We want to make sure everybody gets served. To get rid of that waiting list, is it getting more donations in? That's definitely one way, fundraisers, donations. We do have another grant that we got from the county, CDBG grant, and it does cover some of the meals. And then we have, you know, we have people that have sponsored, you know, meals for a person for, you know, to get off the waiting list. I heard we have 40 on the waiting list, which is high for us. Not usually, we don't usually have it that high, but yeah, it's a challenge. I mean, it takes, you know, two to three, I believe two to $3,000 a year. I'm trying to think how the math works, but to be able to do the meals that we do for each person. So yeah, that's just the food costs, those kind of things. Well, I was just thinking about those people that are on the waiting list. Are they in a critical situation, or they're managing okay, but they could certainly use Meals on Wheels? Is that the thing? Yeah, you know, we have case managers, and if someone's in a critical situation, we always do those ones first. We always make sure that people aren't going hungry, right? No, I worry about that. Yeah, we do too. So we're always trying to kind of triage, or whatever you want to call it, to see who needs the most. Like I said, we do have the medically tailored meals, which is something a little bit different than Meals on Wheels, but it's something that if people need actually dietary requirements, you know, they can kind of go through that route to get the meals as well. But yeah, so it's a challenge, but we're always trying to make sure we get everybody fed. Well, I just see people being stoic that really do need the help, you know, and they might not ask for it and stuff, they ask for the assistance. Yeah, right. That's true too. So that's another thing. That's another kind of barrier that you can face, is that people don't always want to reach out. Yeah, exactly right. These medical tailored meals, though, this is different than Meals on Wheels, right? Those are the ones that if somebody has a dietary requirement, they get a, what, a recommendation from a doctor to the nutritionalist, or something like that? Yeah, it's actually a prescription that's required now. Prescription, yeah. That was kind of a change in the law. So now a prescription is required for, and again, oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes it's because someone came out of the hospital or whatever, and they have a new dietary requirement. And so that's kind of how we meet that, is we're able to tailor our meals, whatever that need is, we're able to tailor our meals to that. How unusual is that? I mean, that's a great service, but it sounds kind of unusual. It is. I think, you know, the idea that food is medicine, right? Yeah. So good nutrition is medicine. I think that's a growing understanding in the medical field and in the community at large. So I wouldn't say that that's just a starting out thing, but for us, it's one of those things where we see a need there to meet, and so we're kind of trying to build that. We've done it for a little over a year now, the medically tailored meals, or yeah, it's been over a year now. I think there's a great need for that, that we need to find those folks and make sure they know that we offer that. Yeah. Well, you know, mine went right to diabetic patients and stuff. I could understand that, but there's probably a whole host of things that might be being made, I would guess. Yeah. Yeah, there is. There could be all kinds of different ailments that need treated a certain way. You know, certain foods need to be restricted, certain foods need to be added, yeah. Certain vitamins, nutrients, that kind of thing. All right. So people that want to get involved with this to help make it happen, you know, as far as fundraising goes, making contributions, can they contribute in particular? I think you mentioned something about sponsoring a family, but can they do like a monthly gift to go towards the food programs? Definitely. Yeah. So we have, you know, all donations obviously are welcome for us, as every nonprofit goes through this. You know, we get donations all the time, just maybe one-time donations, but we also have monthly giving programs. We have, like you mentioned, the ability to sponsor a senior for, you know, for meals and, you know, people can join together and sponsor a meal for the waiting list, right? You can come together and get that $2,000 or whatever it is to get a person off the waiting list. So there's all kinds of ways you can donate. There's also, we have fundraisers coming up, the holiday season, we have our bingo night coming up in December, we have other things that we're going to be doing here. So it's, you know, we try and be really creative and really innovative on the ways that we fundraise. Yeah. Holiday bingo is going to be a big thing. It is. You know, I've been to two bingo nights. We have four a year. I've been to two, and they've been a lot of fun. And so I'm looking forward to, I guess, the holiday bingo, it's a family bingo, so kids are invited and welcome, of course. And then, from what I've heard, because Eschaton and, oh, shoot, oh, Rhonda's Aftercare, sorry. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. They're both basically supporting that and they're sponsoring, and I've heard that the food is really, really good. So because you get a meal and you get to play bingo, and so, yeah, so it's a lot of fun. And they're serious bingo players, right? They are serious. I've been amazed. I've been amazed. But, you know, it's a lot of, I guess it's a lot of fun, but people really do take bingo. We do bingo, actually, every Friday, as well, at our senior center, but it's just amazing. Some people just really get into it. They lay out sheets of paper. People haven't seen it. They lay out their cards, right? And these same people that look like it would take them, like, forever to read, like the newspaper, right? All of a sudden, they're, like, you know, all over there. They're marking their card. And they're down. Yeah. They're ready to go for it. People buy extra cards. We, you know, with your ticket to the bingo, you get a card and you get a meal, but people buy extra cards to try and up their odds of winning, and, yeah, they can track a bunch of cards. It's pretty awesome. All right. And is there special things that go on as we get closer to the holidays, Thanksgiving? Do you guys do a Thanksgiving meal and things like that, too? So we're kind of, Interfaith Food Ministry is doing a Thanksgiving thing, and we're, and they're using our kitchen to do that. So at Christmas time, there is a, we deliver a meal on Christmas Day, or we help, I shouldn't say we deliver. We help with that process. It's delivered by others, but we help. We're going to cook the meal this year for that. And so there are some things that we do with the actual holidays. Then, like I said, there's bingo coming up, and then beyond that, there's some other fun things. I just like that organizations kind of work together, and you guys geographically write numbers, almost. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Right in the same, almost the same, you know, parking lot as us. Yeah. It's like the other end of it. Right. Yeah. Up the hill. And yeah, they're great there. They've been great to work with. You know, there's a lot of nonprofits that we connect with, and we work together to try and serve the community. Excellent. All right. Well, let's take our last break here down the home stretch of our visit with Gold Country Senior Services with Jay Chandler. Quick break. Before you guess, redo, or regret, start where the pros start. Since 1949, Mal Paint and Glass has helped Nevada County homeowners and contractors get it right the first time. This isn't a big box aisle and a shrug. 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Yeah, it's the first Saturday in November, November 7th. So who's needed out there to make this successful? So basically, anybody that wants to come help load trucks with wood, that they can be helpful. You know, we'll have a lot of people out there, hopefully, I think we're going to have a lot of the high schoolers again out there. But we always need as many people as possible to load. And then also trucks, trucks, not trailers, but trucks that have beds that can put firewood in because that's, you know, a lot of our clients have maybe steep, really steep driveways or just places where they don't have access to a trailer. So we kind of have a list of different clients we deliver to and, you know, all the ones that could take trailers, we've already delivered those. So at this point, we don't need trailers coming in, we just need trucks and people. Yeah, I looked at the yard filled with split firewood on your website. That is an awesome amount of wood. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, and if you go, it's right by the senior center, I'm sorry, it's right by the government building out there. And if you drive down Lamar Meadows Road, you can see it, you can't miss it hardly. And there is, you know, it's a lot less than it was because we've delivered, I think we delivered, you know, 80, 90 cords the first two weeks, the first two distributions. So yeah, and then, you know, we also sell, well, we're sold out at this point, but we sell oak firewood out of there as well. And so during the peak season, the whole platform out there is just packed with wood. All right, so if you can come out there and help, probably gloves, obviously, is a good thing to have. Do you guys supply gloves? We do have gloves, yeah, definitely. If you can bring closed toed shoes, for sure, we wear them. If you have, you know, the steel toed, that's great. I recommend it. And when it's dropped a piece of firewood on their foot, they know how that feels. Oh, yeah, yeah, it hits that toenail and it stays bad for months and years. Definitely. It seems like so. But we do have gloves. We have, there's food out there, snacks and stuff. Oh, good. We bring some donuts, bagels, those kind of things. So yeah, it's definitely a great event. It's just a lot of fun. I really, I really enjoyed my first two times doing that this, this past couple of months and yeah, the past couple of months, and it was, it was a lot of fun and the people out there are great. And it's a good time for, you know, again, community out there. And we're talking about Marty Lombardi, the great job he does with the NU athletes, get them out there and stuff. But here's the thing. If you're a homeschooler, right, you're a mom or dad listening right now, you homeschool the kids. This is a great thing to do as a field trip and help them for service. Definitely. Yeah. My, actually, my, my wife homeschools a number of our kids and so she actually might, I might get one of my, one of my teens out there this, this, this time, if, you know, hopefully if all things work out, she'll be out there helping. No, because you just think about how humbling that is. If you're a young person and it's a cold morning, which, which are coming pretty soon where it's frosty out and all that stuff. You just think about that senior might've helped get firewood that's staying warm in a cold day like that. Yeah. That's kind of a special thing to know you had part in that. Yeah, definitely. And you know, that's one thing you mentioned in the weather, obviously November, we're getting towards the rainy season and you know, if it, if it's pouring rain, we're not going to do our, our, our distribution. So if it's raining or if you're not sure the weather's, whatever it is on November, you know, maybe give us a call at our, our office and yeah, but yeah, I think we postponed them before and I think they go the following Saturday, I think if they can, yeah, yeah. And again, that time of year, you know, usually it's, it's going to be probably chilly, right? But oh yeah. But hopefully maybe not rain that day. I know we need rain, but maybe not that, that day would be great. Yeah. And again, the, the, I guess you can call, I think it's Sonya, you said, if I recall. Sonya's the one in our office. Yeah. She'll be the one that would probably answer the phone and, and you can talk to her. But also you could show up. Right. You can just show up at the, at the wood yard out there by the government building. Yeah. Yeah. And it's something that's very, very important for people also real quickly before I leave the senior firewood and we wrap up this thing, cause I was talking with Dwayne Strasser from the city of Grass Valley. He's kind of arranging to get some wood that they've removed on properties for fire safety reasons and getting it over to you guys. Right? That's great. Yeah. That's, that's one thing we do all year long is we, we do go out and buck up wood. We don't, we don't drop trees, but we do, if the tree's been dropped, we'll, we'll cut it up in rounds and take it, haul it off and all our wood basically is donated wood from people that have trees that have fallen or whatever and need it cleaned up. So that's one of the things that we do with our firewood program. That's a service to the community as well as we clean up, you know, basically fire hazard material. Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. So if you have trees that are down or, and you really haven't had a chance to haul them away, maybe you can't physically do it, but you've, you've felled them, they're on the ground and stuff. Yeah. Is there a hotline to call or something like that? Same number. Yeah. Our main number, 615-4541 is our main number. That's our admin office. And yeah, I mean, you know, there's, there's sometimes there's a waiting list for that too, cause it takes a lot of work to get out there and get the trees, but yeah, we, we always need donated wood. All right. GoldCountryServices.org is the website. Always great information there, including the schedule for senior lunches, all the activities going on and make plans to stop by Sheragold Community Senior Center. It's a, it's a great building that you probably have not discovered yet, but maybe make it part of your plans as we head towards these holidays that are knocking on the door. Jay, great job today. Thank you, Tom. Appreciate you coming in. Appreciate it. Yeah. And yeah. And happy birthday too, by the way. Oh, thanks. Thanks. Thanks for joining us. --- end of transcript ---