West Yellowstone local, Lindsey Charlton, is making a difference by increasing access to healthy foods for senior citizens.
Sharon Mankey helps serve food at the West Yellowstone Senior Center. She says Lindsey Charlton is making a difference.
“She's amazing. She works really, really hard. We all love her,” said Mankey. “ Lindsey is amazing. She finds herself doing a lot of things in town. She helps with the Senior Center, she delivers meals.”
Charlton has lived in West Yellowstone for several years. She works at the fire department, and off the clock, she provides resources to the West Yellowstone Senior Center.
“Last summer, a couple of our homebound seniors had mentioned in passing that they no longer buy fresh fruits and vegetables because they can't afford them," said Charlton. "We started applying for grant funding which we were awarded $10,000 from One Valley Community Foundation through the Vitality Grant to do free, fresh fruit and vegetables on Fridays during our lunch, and then we deliver a bag of the stuff to all of our Meals on Wheels participants.”
Charlton says they partnered with the local grocery store for bulk prices, but the funds ran out last December. Luckily, other funding resources helped. Now, she is looking for other ways to pay for the program.
“I've been reaching out to local nonprofits and then also I subscribe to different grant platforms and I'm just trying to find any funding sources available," said Charlton. "I've applied for three grants, but I won't know until the end of May if we're awarded the funds.”
For Charlton, doing good like this around the community for seniors is the right thing to do.
“A lot of times, you know, we don't do things we recognize, we do things cause it’s the right thing to do,” said Charlton.
If you are interested in donating to this cause, feel free to reach out to the West Yellowstone Senior Center at wyseniorcenter@gmail.com or contact Lindsey Charlton at 931-551-1520.