Welcome to Kerby Centre » Enhancing Seniors Nutrition Initiative (ESNI)

In 1999, recognizing that the ability to access food can be a major obstacle in achieving a healthy diet, a team of seniors' caregivers and professionals conducted a needs assessment. The purpose was to collect information on food shopping assistance needs of community-dwelling seniors in Calgary.

The needs assessment clearly indicated the need for a range of community-based services to assist seniors in accessing food.

A steering committee of community partners was struck following the needs assessment, to direct future activities of the project. The steering committee consisted of representatives of Kerby Centre for Seniors, Meals on Wheels, City of Calgary - City Links, Calgary Seniors' Resource Society and Calgary Health Region.

Since 1999, the steering committee, called the Enhancing Seniors Nutrition Initiative (ESNI), through collaboration with a variety of partners has completed several activities resulting in some well-accessed resources. Resources developed as a result of the activities of ESNI continue to be utilized and benefit Calgary's community-dwelling seniors.

'Help Getting Food for Seniors' brochure: a brochure for community dwelling seniors and vulnerable individuals that provides information on accessing low cost food and transportation programs and provincial and federal financial assistance programs. The brochure is available in basic English, Punjabi, Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, Gujarati and Aboriginal (basic English). Find copies of these documents below.

Help getting food for Seniors (Aboriginal)

Help Getting Food for Seniors (Chinese)

Help Getting food for Seniors (English)

Help Getting food for Seniors (Gujarati)

Help Getting food for Seniors (Punjabi)

Help Getting food for Seniors (Russian)

Help Getting food for Seniors (Vietnamese)

Nutrition Screening: Healthy eating is important thoughout life. The free screen procedure identifies areas of concern and offers referrals to other programs. Offered at Kerby Wellness on Tuesdays from 9:00 - 11:30 am or Thursdays from 1:00 - 3:30 pm.

Screening Poster

Calgary Co-op Bus Program: free weekly trips from over 90 seniors apartment complexes to 11 different Calgary Co-op Centres throughout the city. For information and a template letter that you can download the following files.

Tips for Setting up Bus Program

Co-op Bus Program Template

'Seniors' . . . Need Some Help Getting Food?' booklet: a listing of grocery shopping and meal delivery services, transportation services for grocery shopping, escorted grocery shopping services, shared meal programs, in-home meal preparation services and emergency food programs for seniors in the Calgary area. This information is avaliable below.

Seniors... Need some help getting food?

Seniors' Nutrition Education Series: three nutrition presentations specifically developed for seniors covering topics of simple meals, food safety and a virtual grocery store tour. To access the simple meals, or virtual grocery store presentations view these files.

Virtual Grocery Store

Simple Meal Solutions
To get a presentation on Food Safety contact a public health inspector with Environmental Services at 943-8045.

Senior FriendlyTM Program: a tool kit of resources developed by the Alberta Council on Aging. Community or seniors' groups, using the tool kit, invite local business such as grocery stores and banks to participate in an evaluation of how they consider the needs of seniors. Recommendations are presented to the store manager for consideration. For more information visit their website at www.seniorfriendly.ca

'Food and Nutrition for Seniors' resource binder: a catalogue of nutrition services, resources and programs available for seniors and their caregivers throughout the Calgary Health Region. Copies are available for loan to the public through the Calgary Health Region's Southport Library at 943-0196.

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