Parks and environment sustainability.

In attendance, we have council members starting Council President Stewart, Council Vice President Yokamina, Council Member Forsyth, Kritzer, Parsi, and we have uh council member Prakria online and myself, uh presiding officer Minka Sony.

We have six items on the agenda today that has been already shared with all the council members in their packet.

Uh we are moving agenda item number four, which is Sparks Impact Fee Schedule Udate and item number five, which is teen center project update together with item number two, which is approved consultant services agreement to supplement one with progressive design building, build consulting LLC for the teen center project to keep all park items together.

Uh let's move to the agenda item number one, and which is acceptance of ex uh ext acceptance of extension of the veterans, seniors and human services levi grant for 2027.

And we have Fox Director Laurent Hamilton, uh Jennifer Judd uh our recruition supervisor here.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

This is uh Lorene Hamilton, Parks and Recreation Director.

I'm actually joined today by Erica Chua, our recreation manager, who's going to present on this item.

And this is for the grant acceptance for a grant for our senior lunch program.

So I'll hand it over to Erica.

Hello, Council members.

I'm Erica Chua, the recreation manager, and um here to just provide an overview of the City of Redmond has been awarded the Veterans Seniors and Human Services or VSHSL grant extended through the year of 2027.

Um this funding will allow us to continue to provide our three days of senior lunch on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

The previous grant award was um will end this this uh December, December 31st, 2026.

And so the additional grant award will provide 99,225 um for the continuation of those three days of senior lunch.

So simply um wanting to bring this uh to everyone and see if there's any questions before the council meeting.

Did you say when we're looking to put it on?

We're looking to put this on the consent agenda on the 22nd of wait today's October 6th for the consent agenda.

Our apologies.

We're looking for council to move this to the consent agenda on October 6th.

Questions?

Uh see Council Member Parsi.

Thank you.

I know this is a very popular program, and um I support moving forward with this.

Um, I wanted to understand if uh for this specific grant, I saw that the previous one was covering a span of two years.

However, this one covers a span of one year.

So I was wondering if we should, you know, thinking about the next year, if we should be thinking about alternatives if we're concerned about this grant potentially not being available in the future, and um also on top of that.

Um, besides this grant, do we have other grants that we're looking to pursue on top of this so we can have additional um expansions to this program or not?

So that's my two questions.

Yeah, thank you.

This is a very popular program.

We typically serve about 70 seniors each day of our senior lunch.

Um, I'm not concerned about the one-year funding.

Um, we had received the VSHSL grant for the previous two years, and then we're allotted an extension, basically, because we have continued to meet their funding requirements as well as all of their reporting requirements.

So we're very pleased and grateful for that.

Um, and then once this grant is something that we can apply for again, which that cycle should open in the new year, we will apply for that again for 2028-2029.

Um, in addition, we also receive funding from the Department of Um Health Services, and so that also helps provide some of our funding for this program.

In addition, um, due to the funding that we receive, we receive, we are required to ask for um optional donations.

So those funds go back into funding the program.

And in addition, we also have a model set up with our cost of service so that um we can take our um our programming that is more revenue generating to help support some of these foundational programs that are donation-based.

So I'm not concerned about the funding in the future.

Um, in addition, we have been working closely with our grants team to look at grants through um WSDA as well, the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

And so we're continuing to monitor other grants that can help to make sure that we fund this program well into the future.

Does that answer your question?

Okay, great.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for bringing this forward.

Looking forward to supporting this and knowing how popular this program is and what it means to the community is wonderful.

And just taking a moment, since this is a VSHS grant, looking forward to how, as a city, we can then start honoring our veterans specifically in the future as well.

Councilmember Forsyth.

Thank you.

I will second that as well.

Also looking forward to approving this.

The last time I recall us really digging in on this program was back in COVID.

And interested to hear if we've gotten any feedback on the nutrition level.

I know that was something that was brought forward to me back then, making sure that the meals were more nutritious.

So just curious when the last time we kind of survey the seniors to make sure that we're hitting the right mark.

Yeah, thank you.