Kenai Senior Center receives salmon donation

Fifty pounds of frozen sockeye salmon arrived at the Kenai Senior Center on Wednesday afternoon, the first shipment of what will be 300 pounds of salmon donated to the center’s senior meals program by the commercial fishing trade organization Alaska Salmon Alliance.

Senior center director Rachael Craig said the salmon will be served once a month during the Senior Center’s Wednesday lunches, which are open to the public, and also fed to home-bound seniors enrolled in the center’s meal delivery program.

Craig said the salmon meal was originally suggested by Kenai senior Howard Hill, who after seeking a source of local donated salmon secured the donation from the Alaska Salmon Alliance. She said that salmon has nutritional benefits, particularly for seniors, for whom it supplies anti-oxidants, proteins, and oils.

“Some people say it helps brain-power,” Craid said, of salmon. “But it helps your skin and provides the oils for your body, for your joints.”

Senior Center cook Melissa “Missy” Bailey agreed that the salmon would be nutritious.

“It’s lean, good in protein,” Bailey said. “Gosh darn pretty much no hormones, no antibiotics, that sort of thing. Right out of Cook Inlet.”

After opening the box of frozen salmon, Bailey said she was happy to find it already filleted and pin-boned, which she hadn’t been expecting. She had planned to fillet and bone the salmon herself.

Salmon Alliance executive director Arne Thomson said the donation was fitting, given the senior center’s location.

“Here we are on the Kenai River,” Thomson said. “You’ve got major seafood processing plants right here in Kenai. And we think we should be making good, high-quality sockeye salmon available to our senior citizens.”

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