COMSTOCK – The Comstock Den Senior Center, in its nearly 40 years, has served countless meals, but each one counts. It was only after the 2020 pandemic that the center started estimating those numbers.
On Friday, those efforts were rewarded with a dining hall packed with community members, representatives from surrounding cities and congressional offices, and Governor Jim Pillen himself, all to celebrate the Comstock Den’s fully-upgraded kitchen through a $181,000 grant from the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.
Laura Hart of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and years-long advocate for the Comstock Den, said that what the center did in the face of a global shutdown deserved every ounce of celebration.
“Everything is through volunteers. When you think of the Village of Comstock, it’s something like 116, maybe 124 people. They served 950 unduplicated meals a day. The impact that has on the area changes lives.”
The center accomplished the feat by implementing meal deliveries for the first time in its history; the program would prove so successful that it continues to grow. The Den now delivers daily meals to the communities of Sargent and Arcadia in addition to Comstock, over a 20-mile radius.
South Central Nebraska Agency on Aging Executive Director Rod Horsely, on hand for the roast beef lunch, said that the Comstock Den, in addition to pioneering its delivery program, could continue to blaze trails for area senior centers in the years ahead through its involvement with the Department of Economic Development.
“That department historically has never done anything with service organizations, and so we’re hoping that the governor will see this impact with a non-profit service organization and will replicate it.”
The impact was immense if lunch was any indication: the Comstock Den, for the hour, was standing room only.
The center has implemented its COVID in the most practical way: the center now boasts 2 new freezers, a dishwasher, shelving, and a shipping container for dry storage. Hart says that COVID wasn’t the only struggle for the community in recent memory.
Comstock’s community center’s basement was waterlogged by a 2019 flood, which forced the Comstock Den to move its dry storage onto the valuable real estate of its back room, where Hart now proudly points to a wall of new fridges, each garnished with a huge red ribbon. The dry storage has moved to a shipping container just out the Den’s backdoor.
“With the shipping container, we can move everything that was once here outside, and store more food.”
Additionally, part of the Department of Economic Development money was used to update floor tiles and fix the building’s roof; a leak sprung when the building was closed. Hart said that the triumph of the Comstock Den in the face of adversity boils down simply to a mindset.
“This building has become a focal point of the community. And I couldn’t build them a new one, so what could we do? Instead of, ‘What can’t we do, what can we do?’”
The Comstock Den, thanks to its people and its spirit, will continue to serve meals both in person and by delivery 5 days a week; while they count their meals, the communities served will undoubtedly be counting their blessings.
