An unusual restaurant dining program for senior citizens offered by the Salvation Army Golden Diners in Geneva will receive special recognition Monday from the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management.
Seniors signed up with the program can visit one of two restaurants and order from a menu developed by the Salvation Army and the restaurants, said Celia Sanders, the agency’s community liaison.
The agency will be one of three non-profit organizations recognized for its programs during the presentation of the 1999 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovations in Los Angeles.
The top award recipient is the Sacramento-based California Emergency Foodlink, which is being honored for its program that trains unemployed men and women to be licensed truck and bus drivers.
The other agency being recognized is the Alaska Business Development Center, for its volunteer tax and loan program created in 1996 for rural fishermen.
The three award winners were chosen from 250 applicants.
The awards are given to non-profit organizations to recognize innovative programs making a difference in the lives of those they serve.
Golden Diners serves seniors in Kane, Kendall and McHenry Counties. Its restaurant meal program joined two other programs that offer lunch to seniors at 20 designated sites or hot meal delivery to homebound seniors.
The restaurant program, in its fourth year, is available from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Bill’s Restaurant in Aurora and the Marengo Family Restaurant in Marengo. It has grown from serving fewer than 100 seniors to more than 1,200.
The senior menu offers several breakfast and lunch choices for as low as $2.50. The difference from the regular meal price is paid through federal grants.
“We decided to try it as a way to get younger seniors to come to our meal program,” Sanders said. “Our other diner locations are places like churches or libraries or Salvation Army sites, and a lot of people perceive our program as only for poor people. This is to let them know it’s for everyone.
“In particular, there are those who may have money to buy food, but they don’t know how to shop or cook meals properly, such as widowers whose wives did those things. They are being undernourished.”
“We thought this was a good way to reach more of those people,” she said. “And it’s not just meals; it also is socialization. We don’t want seniors just staying at home watching television. We want them with people.”
Those who sign up with the Golden Diners can also eat at any of its 20 dining centers, which supply a noontime meal.
Founded in 1990, the New York City-based foundation is named and inspired by Drucker, considered a guru of modern management theory. Its aim is to strengthen the social sector through providing intellectual resources, such as conferences and publications, to leaders in that sector and in business and government.
