RFCS secures $13,780 grant for SALT talks program

Craig Bakay | Mar 18, 2020

In the midst of all the bad news lately, here’s a little bit of good news.

Rural Frontenac Community Services has been successful in securing a New Horizons grant in the amount of $13,780 for its SALT (Seniors and Law Enforcement Together) talks luncheon series.

The SALT talks program offer a free lunch for seniors and a talk on things that matter to seniors in terms of health and/or safety. They’ve been becoming more and more popular since being introduced a few years ago.

“We got all that we asked for,” said Catherine Tysick, Adult Centre Manager. “And the fortunate thing is that it’s for one year . . . I suspect we’re going to get off to a slow start.

“We have to schedule a meeting in April (and) personally I don’t think we can move ahead if we don’t have the halls.”

Tysick said that one of the best aspects of the new funding is that it means they can branch out in terms of the topics they offer with lunch — it doesn’t have to be health related.

“We can now branch out to topics that are not health matters but do involve safety such as banking, online shopping and such.

“It’s good to have the OPP’s expertise on this.”

She said they have been in the process of securing caterers for their events.

“Up to this point, we had been using our own staff, who do the Diners events,” she said. “The funding means we can spin it off and have it separate from Diners.”

She said the locations and dates of events are yet to be determined but they do plan to use the money for 12 events — six in Central Frontenac and six in North Frontenac.

She said that if people have ideas for topics they’d like to have covered, they can make suggestions directly to her (613-279-3151, ext; 201)

“When we have the events people will have to RSVP through here, and if people have questions, they can ask me too,” she said.