Recently, a Norwich High School CARE student and staff member delivered a home meal to a local senior. The home meal delivery collaboration between Chenango County Area Agency on Aging and Norwich High School CARE program took effect at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. (Submitted photo)

NORWICH - The staff at the Norwich High School (NHS) Chirlin Academy for Restorative Education (CARE) program were contemplating community involvement activities for their 2024-2025 students and reached out to the Chenango County Area Agency on Aging (CCAAOA) for support to their need.

The Chenango County Area Agency on Aging offers home and community based programs that provide older adults with access to a well planned coordinated package of in home and other supportive services designed to support and supplement informal care.

“One of our agency programs is home meal delivery and one of our volunteer drivers is the NHS CARE Assistant Teacher Shawn Sastri,” said Agency Director Heather Felter. “He contacted us during the summer and said he would love to get their students involved in volunteer work.”

“So our agency Nutrition Services Coordinator Erin Confer and I did some brainstorming and met with the CARE team to share what our program provides and the different things we would have available for the students,” she said.

Felter said they decided on the meal delivery service and offered the idea of delivery on Wednesday’s meal route. The teachers or staff would rotate through the students and meet at the Norwich Senior Center to pick up the meals for delivery.