Lakeport >> The Meals on Wheels Thrift Store will honor the many people who made the store and the continuation of meal services possible today at 10 a.m. There will be a wall of more than 240 names of volunteers, board members and staff that have participated in the thrift store.
Meals on Wheels Thrift Store history
In 2009 times were tough for the Lakeport Senior Activity Center, executive director Jonathan Crooks said. The economic environment saw donations reduced and funding cuts that forced the food program to scramble for ways to keep providing meals to seniors. With numerous fundraisers the center still had no other choice than to make staff cuts just to keep the doors open.
The senior center produces more than 55,000 meals per year, but the funding contracts are for little more than half, leaving it with an annual funding shortfall in excess of $100,000, Crooks said.
Most other centers have additional funding to cover shortfalls through a special tax to help their programs, but Lakeport and Lucerne are outside of the geographical boundary to receive this.
One day in 2010 Maxine Lotsey proposed reopening the senior center’s mini mall and was sure that, if it was run correctly, could generate a couple thousand dollars each month. Immediately work began on upgrading and modifying the small, 400-square-foot room into a boutique and thrift shop. The donations started pouring in.
Quickly the room was outgrown and the urgency to find a bigger space was seen. The board of directors took a leap of faith and approved looking for a bigger space.
In March of 2011 the store moved into the strip mall “Pueblo Grande” on Lakeport Boulevard. With 1,200-square feet of space it was a matter of weeks before the store was full. The donations kept pouring in and the support from the community was amazing, Crooks said. The original couple thousand dollars a month tripled and the need for more space could not have been more urgent as the senior center turned into a storage for donations and was bursting at the seams.
Just a few months later that August, negotiations began on renting the 8,800-square-foot “Lake Parts” building on the corner of First and Main Street in Lakeport. The board of directors had to weigh the risks of taking on such a large space and the additional costs, but they took another leap of faith and the grand opening was held on Oct. 31, 2011.
In the new location sales tripled again. Within a year the senior center was in negotiations to purchase the building. When the sale was final, Lotsey, the board of directors, staff and hundreds of volunteers had successfully secured the financial future of the Lakeport Senior Activity Center and its ability to provide meals for generations to come.
To date, the store has helped fund 276,625 meals with hundreds more daily.
The Meals on Wheels Thrift Store is located at 120 N. Main St. in Lakeport and is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call (707) 263-6174 for additional information.
