PEIPrince Edward Island is once again funding community meals for seniors after a successful start to its pilot project last year, the province’s minister of social development and seniors says. 41 organizations across the Island will host free meal events in 2025Gwyneth Egan · CBC News · Posted: Jul 24, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 32 minutes agoSummerside’s Parkview Senior Citizens Club launched the first of this year’s provincially-funded community meals with an outdoor ceilidh Wednesday afternoon. (Daniel Brown/CBC)Prince Edward Island is once again funding community meals for seniors after a successful start to its pilot project last year, the province’s minister of social development and seniors says. First launched in 2024, the project provides grants of up to $5,000 so groups can host free community meal events for seniors. While still considered to be a pilot program, the reception has been positive so far, said P.E.I. Social Development and Seniors Minister Barb Ramsay. “The last thing that we want is for seniors to be home isolating and not getting out and… enjoying the summer months,” Ramsay said, noting that the program will continue running into the fall and winter. “Any way we can bring seniors together and allow them to have some enjoyment is what the intention is.” ‘The last thing that we want is for seniors to be home isolating and not getting out,’ says Barb Ramsay, P.E.I.’s minister of social development and seniors. (Daniel Brown/CBC)The province will spend $161,000 to support community meals hosted by 41 organizations across the Island, she said.The grants are intended for a dual purpose — to ease food insecurity among seniors, but also to address social isolation.Numbers from 2021 show that at least 6,000 seniors on P.E.I. were living below the poverty line at that time, and that was before steep increases in the cost of living. ‘So important to them’Summerside’s Parkview Senior Citizens Club launched the first of this year’s provincially funded community meals with an outdoor ceilidh Wednesday afternoon. About 100 people gathered for live music and barbequed burgers. ‘It’s just important that we allow seniors to come out and socialize and have fun, and this is a good example of that,’ says Gordie Whitlock, the vice-president of the Parkview Senior Citizens Club in Summerside. (Gwyneth Egan/CBC)”Funding is always tight to get,” said Gordie Whitlock, vice-president of the club. “Seniors don’t tend to go out and fundraise a lot of money… so when the province steps up to the plate and provides opportunities like this, we obviously want to take advantage of it.” Whitlock said the seniors club — which includes over 200 members — has worked hard since the COVID-19 pandemic to organize social activities for seniors. “One of the biggest problems seniors face is isolation and a lack of things to do, so this club is very important to a lot of senior citizens and things like this are just so important to them,” he said. “It’s just important that we allow seniors to come out and socialize and have fun, and this is a good example of that.” ABOUT THE AUTHORGwyneth Egan is a reporter with CBC Prince Edward Island. She is a graduate of Carleton University’s master of journalism program and previously interned with White Coat, Black Art. You can reach her at gwyneth.egan1@cbc.ca
Pilot project that provides community meals for P.E.I. seniors extended another year
