ROCK SPRINGS — Young at Heart Senior Center’s Special Diets Program recently received a United Way of Southwest Wyoming grant for its special diets program.

The $11,500 grant is for the center’s 2026-2027 fiscal year and supports a program offering hot meals for Rock Springs residents requiring special diets that can’t be met through a normal home-delivered meal. The program also serves residents outside of Rock Springs, which provides frozen meals from Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County on a weekly basis. Young at Heart works with MHSC to provide the medically-sensitive meals. Young at Heart says the deliveries aren’t just a means of providing food, but also serve as a daily check in and socialization for residents served by the program.

The senior center said the support helps it keep the cost of a special diet meal to $5 per meal. The grant also covers an additional $2 cost associated with providing specialized meals and supports the wages paid to the delivery driver. During the prior fiscal year, the program served 11 people 1,441 meals.

“We are so grateful to United Way of Southwest Wyoming for their continued support of the Special Diets Program,” Daphne Palmer, Home Delivered Meals Coordinator at Young at Heart said. “Their support allows us to keep these medically-necessary meals affordable and ensures that we can continue serving community members who depend on this program. We wouldn’t be able to serve as many clients as we do without their support.”