Photo by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Rachel Craft has lived in the Edinburgh Square retirement complex in northern Roanoke County for six years. She never married, has no kids. After decades as a retail worker here in the valley, she changed careers and became as a certified nursing assistant at Friendship Manor retirement community. She’s 86, but she doesn’t sound like day past 50 on the telephone.

God bless her, she probably can’t read this column, because she’s lost a lot of vision to glaucoma. But that was no matter when the subject came to Soup for Seniors. It’s a program she’s grateful for, especially this time of year.

“I appreciate the soup that the [Local Office on Aging] sends us,” she told me Thursday.”It’s a wonderful service. I’m going to eat it, and enjoy it, on these cold, cold days.”

Craft is one of 3,000 people in our region who benefited last year when the LOA distributed 32,246 cans of soup, tins of tuna and servings of applesauce, as well as 3,500 boxes of crackers. All of that was donated by valley residents.

This year, the LOA has expanded its goals, and is hoping to collect 42,000 food items, enough to serve 3,500 seniors.

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