Warren County seniors are benefitting from one of their own. Quatman Café, with a location in Mason, is providing comfort meals to area seniors through Council on Aging’s (COA) COVID-19 comfort meal program.
The comfort meal program is a COA partnership with area restaurants which uses food to help ease the monotony and isolation felt by many older adults – particularly low-income seniors living in senior apartment buildings. More than 47,000 comfort meals have been delivered through the program since April, including nearly 5,000 in Warren County.
Being part of the comfort meal program deeply touches Quatman owners, Matt and Angie Imm, whose parents and grandparents both benefitted from home delivered meals. “It hits home,” Imm said, “because we all have parents. It’s nice to know that as we’re aging, someone is thinking about the older population.”
Quatman Café’s COVID-19 comfort meal includes a deli sandwich, cookie and a side of homemade potato or macaroni salad.
In 1966, Imm’s father, Albert, and his high school friend Ken Talmage, opened Quatman Café in Norwood. Over the next 41 years, Quatman Café became a Cincinnati icon, known for being a friendly, family-oriented restaurant serving quality, fresh food.
Imm bought the business from his father in 2007 and opened a second location in Mason in 2009.
Today, Quatman Café is still a family-owned and operated business – from cooking to scheduling to administration. The Imm’s children, Grace and Ethan, also help in the restaurant when they can. Grace is developing a new dessert to include in the Quatman Café comfort meal.
More About COA’s Comfort Meal Program
COA’s comfort meal program is a community partnership. The meals are paid for by COA – via federal CARES Act funding – and expands meal service to older adults during the pandemic. The program includes nine restaurants – four of them minority-owned – and COA’s provider network. Meals are prepared by participating restaurants, picked up by COA service providers and delivered to seniors across COA’s service area. In addition to Quatman Café, the following restaurants have prepared meals for the program: LaRosa’s Pizzeria, Frisch’s, Taste of Belgium, C&M BBQ Grille, Chef Anthony Jordan, La Soupe, Neal’s Famous BBQ and Beaugard’s Southern Bar B Que.
With CARES Act funding running out and cases of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations on the rise in Ohio – especially among those age 60 and older – COA is seeking support from businesses and individuals to continue this important program into 2021.
For more information about the program, including how to make a contribution, visit www.help4seniors.org/comfortmeals.