LEWISTON — SeniorsPlus will hold a breakfast to benefit its Meals on Wheels nutrition program. The Fill the Plate Breakfast will be held from 7 to 9 a.m. Friday, March 18, at the Auburn Riverwatch Hilton Garden Inn.

The breakfast will honor Connie Jones with the Ikaria Award and feature a talk by Bill Green, host of the television program “Bill Green’s Maine.” Tickets are $20 a person ($25 at the door) and are available at www.seniorsplus.org/march-for-meals or by calling 207-795-4010.

Titled “From Dream to TV Screen with Bill Green,” Green’s talk will focus on some of his favorite adventures while revealing the entertaining and uplifting story of how his show came to be.

Green is an inductee into the Maine Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the Maine Sports Hall of Fame. In 2015, he won a Regional Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow Award for feature reporting.

Jones will receive the 2016 Ikaria Award, which honors an individual in the community for singular and outstanding contributions toward improving the lives of older adults.

Jones, director of community services at SeniorsPlus, will retire in June after nine years at the organization. Jones has worked with older adults for 30 years and holds a Masters degree in human services with a specialty in gerontology.

“Connie will leave behind a legacy of innovative programming for older adults and adults with disabilities,” said Betsy Sawyer-Manter, executive director of SeniorsPlus. 

The Fill the Plate Breakfast is presented in conjunction with March For Meals, a national campaign of the Meals on Wheels Association of America.

Last year, SeniorsPlus delivered 87,200 meals to more than 600 homebound older adults and adults with disabilities in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties through its Meals on Wheels program. Almost 600 volunteers donate more than 28,000 hours to the program annually. Each meal provides one third of the recommended daily allowance of nutrition, a safety check and a visit. The majority of the consumers of Meals on Wheels are lower income, on fixed income, or MaineCare.

“The breakfast will be nutritious and informative, as the programming is designed to bring to light the work being done in Maine to support our older adults,” said Sawyer-Manter. “We seek funding through this breakfast to avoid waiting lists and to help fund the program.”

The overall program goal of SeniorsPlus is to assist older adults and adults with disabilities in the tri-county area to remain at home safely for as long as possible.

“Meals on Wheels can often determine a person’s ability to remain at home,” said Sawyer-Manter.

Ikaria is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is considered one of the world’s five “Blue Zones,” places where an estimated one in three members of the population regularly lives an active life into their 90s.

FMI: www.seniorsplus.org.

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