Store to Door is celebrating National Centenarian’s Day on September 22nd by honoring those who are 100 years of age or older. Until recently, reaching the age of 100 was considered a rare phenomenon, but today, a growing number of people around the world are living to age 100. If you are lucky enough to know someone over the age of 100 or close to it, take some time to sit with them and listen to them reminisce about their life and stories. You may just learn something wonderful!

We had a chance to speak with Store to Door volunteer, Eleanore Rubinstein, who is 103 years young. Rubinstein accounts her longevity and healthy life to “luck and having a good outlook”. Read more from Eleanore’s interview here:

What is the best advice you have been given in your life? “Be positive and happy!”

What activities have you found most enjoyable through the years? “Almost any sport, baseball, tennis, golf, and bowling.”

What do people think of when they think of you? “I get a lot of compliments for being so active in my age.  People think I have a good outlook on life and that I am pretty lucky to be where I am.”

What is one piece of advice you would give someone who is searching for direction in life? “Find the good in people. Everyone has good in them. It’s also important to make friends and keep them.”

What are some of the most important lessons you feel you have learned over the course of your life? “Be happy!”

What brings you the most joy? “My family. I have 4 children. 7 grand-children, 14 great-grandchildren, and 2 great-great-grandchildren. They all live close to me and I see them all very often, but I do have to keep a list in order to keep it all straight!”

Why is Store to Door important to you? “It is important for all the good it does. It helps people survive – it really does. It is also very personal since someone is calling to say “hi” every week.”

Store to Door welcomes Intel Encore Fellow Dena Tensa to the team! Tensa worked for Intel for 23 years, most recently as an application developer in IT, prior to her retirement.  Her new role with Store to Door will be to assess, improve, and integrate Store to Door’s client, volunteer and constituent relationship management software and lead Store to Door in the exploration of integrating online tools that improve their grocery order taking process.

“We are so excited to have Dena join the team,” said Kiersten Ware, Store to Door Executive Director. “Dena brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise that will help Store to Door improve its services to elders and people with disabilities. We are so grateful to Intel and Social Venture Partners for selecting us to participate in the Intel Encore Fellowship Program.”

Intel’s Encore Fellowship Program leverages Intel retirees’ talents and experiences through volunteerism by engaging in local community organizations to contribute to the common good.

“As an Encore Fellow, I look forward to the next phase of my life, which will be working with the technology at Store to Door,” said Tensa. “This nonprofit serves a very real need in our community, which assists homebound individuals to continue to live independently and cook their own meals, which many like to do.”

 

Home Instead Senior Care (HISC) presented Portland area nonprofit Store to Door with a check of $17,466.43 for their work in supporting independent living for local seniors through their low-cost grocery and delivery service. The gift was part of the GIVE65 online fundraising drive, which supports nonprofits focused on caring for seniors. The check included $13,645 raised by individuals through the drive, and additional matching funds from the HISC Foundation.

“It was an honor to be selected as one of 65 organizations to participate nationally in the event,” said Kiersten Ware, Executive Director for Store to Door. “HISC’s passion for personalized care aligns well with our commitment to ensuring seniors age with dignity in a setting of their choice. Our local HISC franchise owners, Preston and Aimee Roth at the NE Sandy location, are very passionate about their work and have generously supported Store to Door’s work on the local level. So to be recognized by HISC on a national level is such an honor.”

Store to Door’s mission is to support independent living for Portland area seniors and people with disabilities by providing a low-cost, volunteer-based grocery shopping and delivery service.

“Store to Door’s mission to serve seniors aligns with ours at Home Instead and we look forward to growing our relationship,” said Aimee Roth, HISC Owner, serving Corbett, Gresham, Troutdale, Fairview, and Portland. “It has been a pleasure to partner with Store to Door on the GIVE65 event and I am so excited to present this check to them.”

Store to Door was founded in 1989 when a handful of people living in low-income senior housing, too frail to shop on their own, requested assistance from the community. Today, they serve 536 clients with the support of more than 600 volunteers. By 2019, they plan to double the number of people who receive their life-saving service.

“There is a such a need in the community for this service,” said Jean Pierce, Store to Door Board Member. “It’s good for the clients, but it’s also good for us volunteers. It keeps me going. And it’s so nice to see an organization such as Home Instead Senior Care truly understand and appreciate the important work Store to Door provides.”

 
For more information on how you can support Store to Door, contact Marianne Back at (503) 200-3333 x003 or email marianne@storetodooroforegon.org.

Nationally, less than 3% of all philanthropic dollars go to support programs for seniors, but on Tuesday, August 30th, twenty-two Portland area restaurants will donate 10-20% of sales to Store to Door.

You can help Store to Door provide nourishment and companionship through grocery deliveries to home-bound seniors and people with disabilities. Simply dine out at any of the great restaurants listed below on Tuesday, August 30th!

Our restaurant partners will donate 10% of the day’s sales to Store to Door. It’s a great excuse for a night out or lunch date with friends and family!

So far, our amazing restaurant partners include:

14 Pizzicato Pizza Locations
(Beaverton, Cornell, Downtown, Laurelhurst, Forest Heights, Fremont, Hillsdale, Lake Oswego, Mt. Tabor, Murray Hill, Northwest, PSU, Sylvan, and Westmoreland locations)

Accanto
2838 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR 97214

Dove Vivi Pizza
2727 NE Glisan St, Portland, OR 97232

KIVA Tea Cafe Spa
1533 NW 24th Ave, Portland, OR 97210

Lincoln Restaurant
3808 N Williams Portland Oregon 97227

Pie Spot
521 NE 24th Ave, Portland, OR 97232

Prasad Cafe
925 NW Davis St, Portland, OR 97209

Rocio’s
2850 SE Gladstone St, Portland, OR 97202

Sunshine Tavern
3111 SE Division Street Portland Oregon 97202

The Village Hut
7647 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR 97219

Use #DineOutforSeniors2016 to share your support of the event on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and to enter to win a $25 Fred Meyer Gift Card!

We hope to see you at one of these amazing restaurants!

Genentech will sponsor a week of grocery delivery costs for over 175 homebound seniors and people with disabilities from June 13^th – June 17^th through Store to Door’s Support-A-Week program. Employees of Genentech will celebrate the week by volunteering to grocery shop for Store to Door clients, along with 20-30 other Portland-area volunteers.

This is Genentech’s second Support-a-Week sponsorship this year, with their first happening in February. Other Support-a-Week sponsors include OnPoint Community Credit Union and First Tech Federal Credit Union.

Store to Door’s Support-A-Week program offers corporations and organizations the opportunity to sponsor the cost of an entire week of grocery delivery to clients. The actual service cost per delivery averages $40, yet, to make it affordable, clients are charged an average of just $3-$6 per delivery.

Please join us in welcoming Amanda McIver as Store to Door’s new Volunteer & Outreach Manager.  Amanda studied Community Health Education and Aging Services at PSU and will bring a wealth of volunteer management experience to this role.  She has been interning with us for the last year and a half, supporting outreach and events, and we are already quite familiar with her smart, friendly, and energetic approach to serving the community.  We are delighted to welcome Amanda aboard!

Evie Engel and Tom Wagener have supported Store to Door in virtually every capacity for a combined total of 22 years. Between the two, they have volunteered as grocery order takers, grocery shoppers, delivery drivers and even behind-the-scenes program coordinators. Now, when they’re not travelling to exciting destinations, they are substitute delivery drivers and we’re so grateful!

When Glen first started as a volunteer order taker in 2000, it was in a small office in NW Portland. He then moved along with us to a bigger office in the Con-way building in the NW. And he’s still making calls each week to support homebound seniors – but now from our new office in Multnomah Village. “I really do think it’s a wonderful service,” says Glen. “It also helps me appreciate that I can do and go anywhere I want. Many of the people I talk to can’t.” Thank you, Glen, and all of the more than 60 other volunteer order takers for caring about and connecting with clients each week!

Shirley Bernstein is one of the key volunteers behind Store to Door’s money-saving coupon program. For more than 12 years, Shirley has volunteered every week to cut, sort, and organize valuable coupons that are used to save clients’ money. And when you have a low or fixed income like many Store to Door clients do, coupons help make ends meet. “The best part of the job,” says Shirley, “is that I get to talk to the staff and help people who can’t get out and do the shopping.” Shirley herself is a Store to Door client so volunteering each week is her way to give back. Thank you for 12 wonderful years, Shirley!