‘End the Wait’ drive aims to move 50 seniors off the waiting list, fill gap left by cutback in federal funding
The Fairbanks Senior Center is launching an end-of-the-year fundraiser to help pay for its Meals on Wheels program. The need for the program is growing, as is the population of elders around the Fairbanks North Star Borough and statewide.
The Senior Center hopes to raise enough money to fill an $82,000 gap created by the end of federal funding that was being provided through the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act. Volunteer Coordinator Ashley Edgington says that money was helping the Center meet the needs of the Fairbanks area’s growing senior population.
“So during the pandemic, the state was flooded with a lot of federal money, ARPA funds,” she said. “And so that allowed us to grow with the need. And we were able to onboard a lot of seniors.
The Center’s Meals on Wheels program home-delivers one healthy meal every weekday to seniors who live in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. That helps those seniors to live in their homes as long as possible. Edgington says the $82,000 dollars would’ve paid for just over 11,700. That’s enough to feed 45 elders for a year.
“And so it forces us to kind of re-evaluate what we're doing and kind of work to at least fund-raise some of that to make up for and get some more seniors onto the program,” she said.
The Senior Center anticipates more elders coming into the program, because Alaska’s senior population is growing faster than any other state’s. Much of that growth comes from the aging cohort of Baby Boomers. State health officials say the Interior’s Boomer population grew by nearly 23,000 from 2012 to 2022.
The Alaska Department of Health’s multiyear senior services plan projects rapid growth in the population of seniors in the borough who need the most help, those age 80 and above, will grow from 1,800 to more than 5,000 by 2030.
“This year, with the reduction in funding and people getting older, we've just had an explosive year in those needs,” Edgington said. The growth in the elder population combined with the end of federal pandemic funding has left the Senior Center with 50 people on its waiting list, she added.
“It's actually highly unusual for us to have a wait list at all,” she said. “I've worked here for seven years and if we've had a wait list, it was only a couple of people, and then we were always able to call upon our community or find a grant or find resources, and then we could quickly onboard those two or three people.”
That’s why the Senior Center launched what it’s calling the End the Wait fund-raiser. The goal is to raise at least 82,000 to cover the federal funding shortfall. But their aspirational goal is $200,000.
“We're just helping people stay in their homes, stay out of assisted living and, you know, continue to live in the way that they wanted.”
Edgington says there’s nowhere near enough nursing home space in the borough to accommodate the growing demand in the years ahead.
“There's only 300 nursing home beds. And you've got 22, 000 seniors fighting for those 300 beds,” she said.
Besides donations, Edgington says the Senior Center also is looking for more volunteers.
You can find out more about the fund-raiser by going to the organization’s website at fairbanksseniorcenter.org or by calling the center at (907) 452-1735.
