The nonprofit Serving Seniors offers communal meal services across the county. On Thursday, they launched at the Bay Terraces Senior Center in southeast San Diego.
Almost 100 seniors packed the center wall-to-wall, spilling out onto the patio.
The party started in the morning, long before meal service, with line dancing, flirting and jokes.
“One more!” the crowd would yell at the DJ every time a song ended.
“Ten o'clock is a party time here,” Sol Christian said at a crowded table of friends.
They huddled over free burritos and cake.
“This is a place to meet friends, and this is a place if you want to find, uh ... ,” she giggled, “ ... you know, your very very ... ”
“Boyfriend!” one of her friends chimed.
“Boyfriend! I don’t want to say that!” she said, yelling and laughing.
There have been almost 6,000 research studies on the benefits of communal meal programs for seniors. These studies back up what humans have known since the dawn of time: It’s good to break bread together.
It’s especially good for seniors.
Typically on fixed incomes, they’re more vulnerable to food insecurity.
They’re also more vulnerable to social isolation and loneliness. A condition with such serious effects on health, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory warning about it.
City of San Diego resources expanded what Bay Terraces seniors were already doing for themselves.
Their Fil-Am Senior Association has been hosting potlucks and line dancing at this park for decades, members said.
They advocated for a building for almost as long.
When the city finally opened one in 2021, their numbers grew. The air conditioning was a hit.
This new meal service, they said, will surely bring in even more people.
The senior association already has more than 260 members, the board’s chairperson said — more than double the center’s building capacity.
Sol Christian just started coming last January and said she’s already friends with everyone.
“People are sometimes shy, but, you know, once you approach them, it's, you know, you become like sisters and brothers,” she said.
The meal service will also offer breakfast and lunch to-go, and staff said they have resources to add a second lunch service if needed.
