KINGSBURG – Community members are invited to enjoy some zesty seafood goodness to provide for local seniors.
On March 21, the Kingsburg Senior Center will be hosting its second annual cajun shrimp dinner fundraiser. Held at the Kingsburg Historical Park with doors opening at 5 p.m., community members with a taste for shrimp can help support the operation of the senior center’s lunch program.
The event has been made possible thanks to partnerships with local organizations, community members and businesses.
“The dinner was sprouted from an idea, but it’s taken a lot of community partners to put this together,” said Adam Castaneda, community services director for the city of Kingsburg.
Tickets for the event are $40 per person or $500 per table, which includes eight dinner and drink tickets and five tickets for the firearm raffle. The raffle is sponsored by Central Valley Guns, with entries on sale for $20 each. Diners can also enjoy a bar and live entertainment.
Just like last year’s dinner fundraiser, the goal is to raise $20,000 to help maintain the senior center’s practice of providing quality, home cooked meals to its visitors.
Castaneda explained that some senior centers began shutting down their lunch programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Central Valley Guns stepped in to partner with the Kingsburg Senior Center to secure funding to continue. Staff began cooking meals in house, boxed them and shipped them to more than 200 seniors in the area from Monday through Friday.
The center eventually transitioned back to county-provided lunch program meals after the pandemic, but after feedback from visitors who had grown accustomed to higher quality food, they made the switch back.
Today, the lunch program serves not only to give the city’s seniors a good meal, but to also expose them to some of the center’s other offerings. It provides an opportunity for local seniors to find new communities, and to stay in touch with the senior center’s staff.
“Social connection is a huge thing for seniors, and when we lose connection with someone for a couple of days, we know that it’s time to check up on them to make sure that they’re doing okay,” Castaneda said. “They get that by coming here and just getting exposed through the lunch, they make friends and get people watching out for them.
According to Castaneda, it costs around $190,000 annually to maintain the lunch program, and is made possible thanks to $100,000 from the city and $55,000 from the Kingsburg Healthcare District. The rest, he said, is up to the senior center and the people of Senior Inc, the nonprofit group that helps run the center.
Last year, the inaugural shrimp dinner saw strong success, raising around $19,000 in total, and things are looking promising again this year. With still nearly a month to go until the event, Castaneda said that availability is down to around six or seven tables.
Dinner and raffle tickets can be purchased at the senior center, or by calling 559-897-3013.
