Douglas County Commissioners Tim Freeman, Chris Boice and Tom Kress along with our Douglas County Senior Services Department are excited to announce the reopening of our rural Senior Dining Sites to ‘dine-in’ bistro-style service. Over the last two years, our senior dining sites have been limited to drive-through meal pick-up service due to the pandemic. But, now we are ready to re-open our senior dining sites to in-person dining. Along with the re-opening, we would also like to announce that our senior dining sites have undergone some upgrades, starting with a new name, ‘Bistro Sixty’. The newly upgraded ‘Bistro Sixty’ sites now offer café style seating, new table décor, longer hours and classy dinnerware. Our senior dining sites are located in Glendale. Glide, Sutherlin, Riddle, Winston, Yoncalla and Reedsport.
The re-opening of our Bistro Sixty senior dining sites comes as we celebrate 50 years of the Senior Nutrition Program in the United States. According to the Administration for Community Living, since 1972, the national Senior Nutrition Program has supported nutrition services for older adults across the country. Funded in part by the Older Americans Act, local senior nutrition programs serve as hubs for older adults to access nutritious meals and other vital services that strengthen social connections and promote health and well-being. This month they are celebrating the accomplishments of the national and local programs, acknowledging innovative approaches to serving older adults, and educating communities to better understand nutrition services. To learn more, log on to: https://acl.gov/
The first two ‘Bistro Sixty’ senior dining sites re-opened last week, the Bistro Sixty Glendale, located at 176 Glendale Town Rd., re-opened on Tuesday, March 22, and the Bistro Sixty Glide, located at 20062 N. Umpqua Hwy., re-opened on Thursday, March 24. The remaining Douglas County ‘Bistro Sixty’ senior dining sites will re-open on the following dates:
Bistro Sixty Sutherlin Tuesday, April 5, 2022 202 E. Central Ave., Sutherlin Bistro Sixty Riddle
Tuesday, April 12, 2022 123 Parkside St., Riddle Bistro Sixty Reedsport
Thursday, April 14, 2022 460 Winchester Ave, Reedsport Bistro Sixty Yoncalla
Tuesday, April 19, 2022 400 Main St, Yoncalla Bistro Sixty Winston
Thursday, April 21, 2022 440 Grape St, Winston
“Our senior dining site staff and Douglas County Senior Services staff will be setting a nice table for guests to enjoy at each of our re-opened senior lunch service locations. As a Board, it’s vitally important for us to continue to foster ways for older adults to reconnect in the coming months,” remarked Commissioner Tom Kress
Department staff would like to extend our sincerest gratitude to the City of Winston for their generous donation of plates, bowls, water glasses and coffee mugs for use at our seven rural senior dining site programs. The Winston Community Center has had the dinnerware on hand as a rental option for catered events at their venue since 2008. However, the City discovered that the dinnerware was underutilized and taking up space in nearly every nook and cranny in their kitchen, as well as almost every corner of the adjoining Teen Center’s computer lab. In 2020, Winston city staff began the task of trying to sell what they could to area caterers and restaurants. But, after two years trying to find the commercial dinnerware a new home, there was still a large surplus remaining. In January 2022, Senior Services Director Jeanne Wright inquired about buying the dinnerware, knowing that such a large quantity of table settings would outfit the entire Douglas County senior dining program with an elegant upgrade. The new place settings would replace the aging school cafeteria trays that have been in use for more than two decades. In the meantime, the Winston City Council unanimously voted to declare the surplus dishes, along with a larger lot of unused items as excess inventory, and make them available for redistribution and/or donation to local agencies. The declaration meant that the surplus dishes would be donated to the Douglas County Senior Meals Program. Winston City Council members said they, “were happy to see the dishes go to such a worthy program!”
“It was a very gracious gift to us,” said Wright. “For months we’ve really been looking forward to the re-opening of our senior dining sites. Our first two sites re-opened last week for inperson dining. We have been enthusiastically planning for a more restaurant-style ambiance for our senior guests, with smaller tables of 2-4 people. I cannot express how excited we are for our guests to be dining on dishes instead of on old school trays!”
Douglas County Commissioners Tim Freeman, Chris Boice and Tom Kress appreciate all the hard work that our staff in Douglas County Senior Services Department has done over the past two years to continue to serve meals to seniors in our communities, and the work they have done to re-open our Bistro Sixty senior dining sites. Kudos also to the City of Winston’s community-minded act of generosity.
“We appreciate the City of Winston’s part in making the dining experience especially nice for the seniors in our community. The timely gift of these dishes really did give Douglas County, and the residents we serve, more than just a few new settings at the table,” commented Commissioner Kress.
Once re-opened, the Bistro Sixty senior dining sites will serve meals on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays starting at 11:45 am. Special coffee hour from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm. Please note that our senior dining sites plan to continue our outside meal pick-up service at all of our senior dining sites for the time being, although it will be by request only. Our Meals on Wheels delivery program will continue to operate without interruption. For more information about our Bistro Sixty senior dining sites, Meals on Wheels and senior nutrition programs, please contact our Douglas County Senior Services Department at (541) 440-3677 or email them at seniors@co.douglas.or.us.
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