MILDRED — Seniors in northern Allen County wanting to take part in the Southeast Kansas Area Agency on Aging’s (SEKAAA) 60+ Dine program traditionally came to Iola for meals served through the Allen County Regional Hospital cafeteria.
Beginning in June, many of those residents will have a closer option — the Mildred Store.
The 60+ Dine program provides meals for adults age 60 and older at participating community dining sites for a suggested donation.
The longtime rural store and restaurant will become the newest Allen County location for the 60+ Dine program, offering meals Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Owner Regena Lance said the store continues looking for ways to serve local residents, especially older adults who may struggle with transportation or access to healthy meals after the closure of the Marmaton Market grocery store in Moran last year.
She believes the 60+ Dine program addresses the need.
Lance said the idea began taking shape earlier this year as she looked for ways to expand the store’s kitchen operations after purchasing equipment from the former Moran grocery store.
“I have a bad brain,” she said with a laugh. “It tends to spin out of control a lot and think of all these ideas of things we could be doing out here.”
Among those ideas was developing a larger commercial kitchen that could serve multiple purposes for the community.
As she began discussing grant opportunities with Thrive Allen County, those conversations connected with separate discussions among local officials and SEKAAA about expanding meal access in rural communities.
Initially, Lance said she worried a large-scale meal service might be too much for her small operation. But she quickly realized the 60+ Dine format felt much more manageable.
The Mildred Store already serves homemade lunch specials, often preparing between 15 and 20 meals. Lance said adjusting recipes to fit the program’s nutritional guidelines should be a relatively smooth transition. “All I’ll have to do is kind of tweak my recipes,” she said.
That does not mean sacrificing quality. The restaurant’s daily specials often include comfort-food staples like pork fritters, mashed potatoes and hot beef sandwiches, all prepared from scratch.
“There are never instant potatoes,” Lance said. “I do not use instant potatoes. Period.”
PARTICIPANTS in the 60+ Dine program receive a card used to track meals electronically. The suggested donation is $5 per meal.
A signup event for the new location is June 8 at the Mildred Store. Representatives with SEKAAA will return monthly to assist participants with enrollment and questions.
