Age Well’s Restaurant Ticket Program brings low priced local restaurant meals to older adults

by Jean MacBride for the Colchester Sun, published on October 22, 2024.

VERMONT – Older adults looking to stretch their budgets while supporting local restaurants are in luck.

Age Well’s Restaurant Ticket Program offers adults ages 60 and over the chance to savor a healthy, pre-selected meal at a restaurant for the price of a suggested $5 donation plus tip. 

Chris Moldovan, Age Well’s director of nutrition and wellness, said the program is a great way for adults to connect with their community and spend time with friends and neighbors.  

“We’re so grateful that the restaurants are providing this community service,” she said.

While Age Well serves recurring community meals in a variety of settings, like local senior centers and libraries, Moldovan said the restaurant program fills the gaps for older adults, since none are able to access these events each day from Monday to Friday in Northwestern Vermont (Chittenden, Franklin, Grand Isle and Addison counties). 

Every restaurant meal served is compliant with the federal Older Americans Act meal nutritional guidelines, Moldovan said, with each meal required to have three ounces of protein, a cup and a half of vegetables – with an emphasis on vegetables containing Vitamin A and C that older adults tend to be deficient in – and two ounces of grains.  

At the end of each month, Age Well reimburses the restaurant at a contracted rate for the meals.

Janice Clark, who helps run Ray’s Seafood in Essex along with her siblings, said that while the program hasn’t been too financially beneficial for the business, it has helped build strong relationships among customers. 

“It probably costs us at least as much [as the reimbursement] to do it, so, we are just more or less doing it for the community,” she said.

Read the full article on the Colchester Sun website.