Dietert Center’s ‘sneaky trick’: come eat lunch, then find out what else is here

Paige Sumner has a method for reaching the seniors who insist they don’t need help yet.

“The thing that Brenda and I do is we say, ‘Come eat lunch with us,'” said the Dietert Center’s director of philanthropy, who appeared Tuesday on Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week alongside Executive Director Brenda Thompson. “You come in, you eat lunch… and then you’re like, ‘Oh, here’s what goes on here?’ And you kind of ease in. And then by the time you need all that stuff as a senior, you totally are familiar.”

Lunch is $10 — home-cooked meals like oven-fried chicken with cheese grits, chicken and dumplings, and meatloaf planned in consultation with a nutritionist. Sumner called it “the cheapest deal in town.” It is also, by design, a gateway.

The Dietert Center’s Café became the center of an unexpected lesson after the July 4, 2025, flood forced it to close for several months while the facility dealt with 20,000 square feet of damage. The ripple effects of that closure were immediate and measurable: the daily social contact the Café provided its regulars simply vanished, and the isolation that followed underscored just how central informal gathering is to senior wellbeing.

The Café is now open again. So is everything else.

The center’s programming slate is extensive: yoga classes that have run continuously for nearly 40 years, art classes, quilting groups, a Banjo 101 class, ballroom dancing, a Money Matters financial literacy program, and a personal development course called The Motivation Code taught by Chad Ketcher. Every other Wednesday, live music plays and attendees compete in spirited, laughter-filled rounds of Name That Tune. The center’s travel coordinator recently organized a sold-out bus trip to Charleston from Oct. 17-25 carrying 40 Kerrville seniors.

The center’s Meals on Wheels program serves 300 homebound seniors daily — without a waitlist, something Sumner noted is true of only about two-thirds of comparable programs nationally. The difference is Kerr County’s volunteer base, which last year contributed more than 34,000 hours across more than 300 volunteers. One driver has been delivering meals for more than 20 years.

“I will drive for Meals on Wheels until I need Meals on Wheels,” she told the center’s staff.

Drivers do more than deliver. They look at clients, help open food containers, and confirm residents are safe — a daily welfare check that for some seniors is the only human contact they receive.

The center also partners with Schreiner University’s nursing program, hosting two-week geriatric clinical rotations that place students alongside Meals on Wheels drivers and yoga classes — breaking down assumptions about aging on both sides.

The center is actively seeking volunteers for Meals on Wheels delivery (must be 18 or older and pass a background check), morning kitchen shifts, travel itinerary planning, and activity instruction — particularly ballroom dancing. The center is 100% community-supported. A monthly gift of $104 directly covers the cost of daily meals for one homebound senior.

Upcoming fundraisers: holiday pie orders from Chef Shauna are available for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Empty Bowls fundraiser — a collaboration with local woodturners who donate hand-carved wooden bowls for a silent auction — returns in March 2027 with all proceeds funding Meals on Wheels.

To volunteer or donate: dietertcenter.org.