Mercy Senior Housing Dinner Outreach

Over the past four years, Hands4Hope has been hosting a Mercy Senior Housing Dinner outreach once a month.  At this outreach, youth participants spend time with senior residents at Creekview Manor playing games, helping with craft activities, and serving dinner.  It's a fun evening for all involved.  Each month, our youth participants will donate food and an adult lead will cook alongside youth participants while other youth participants serve the residents.  

Did you know a youth participant started the Mercy Senior Housing Dinner?  Kirsti Buckendorf, a Hands4Hope alumni and graduate of Oak Ridge High School, began the Creekview Mercy Senior Housing Outreach event during her junior year, while president of the H4H Club at Oak Ridge.  After participating with Hands4Hope for a number of years, she recognized that seniors are an underserved population.  She learned that “1.15 million people 50-plus in California (9.5%) did not have balanced meals or enough to eat at some point in 2014 because they could not afford it” (aarp.org/foodsecurity).

At the time, neither the Hands4Hope organization nor the school clubs within the organization had any outreaches to serve seniors.  Kirsti sought out a population that could be better served and benefit youth at the same time. She met with the resident coordinator at Creekview to determine the needs of the residents there and the outreach evolved from that point.  

The first event included: the distribution of goods collected through a neighborhood food bag "blitz", fleece blankets, and a meal. The Mercy Senior Dinner outreach continues to provide a balanced meal (food mostly donated from H4H participants) and a craft activity to the residents at Creekview Mercy Senior Housing the 3rd Wednesday of every month. Kirsti will still particiapte at this dinner when she is home from college, and her mom continues to be the adult lead for this outreach, carrying on the tradition.

Hands4Hope’s mission is to empower youth to make a positive difference in the world around them through Exploration, Action and Leadership.  Kirsti is a great example of this mission, she Explored the needs of the community and was able to Act, Lead and implement an on-going and beloved outreach to serve an underserved population.