Bayer donates $10K to Meals on Wheels

Express staff

Meals on Wheels Yolo County recently announced receipt of a $10,000 grant from Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer in the U.S., to continue and expand the provision of weekend nutrition to Yolo County’s lowest-income senior citizens.

Arranged and delivered twice monthly as shelf-stable meals supplemented with fresh fruit, the Weekend Food Project “care packages” are intended to sustain recipients in between the organization’s weekday deliveries of prepared hot/fresh and frozen meals. 350 seniors are served currently by the program, with more anticipated over the coming year.

“The demand for food assistance among aging adults in Yolo County has been relentless over the past year,” said Executive Director Joy Cohan. “More than 8,000 Yolo County seniors are impoverished, according to the 2020 Census, and food insecure as a result. Fixed-income seniors are being particularly hammered by the rising cost of food, as well as housing, medical care, and other necessities that limit the funds that seniors can spare to eat healthy diets. We are grateful for Bayer Fund’s recognition of this unacceptable circumstance, and for providing meaningful funding to increase Meals on Wheels Yolo County’s ability to nourish more seniors.”

Weekend Food Project is one of three programs the organization operates to address local deficits in senior nutrition and socialization. Meals on Wheels’ signature Home-Delivered Meals program now provides five meals via three doorstep deliveries per week to nearly 675 seniors countywide, an 80 percent increase in service in the past 18 months. Additionally, congregate dining, aimed at decreasing seniors’ isolation, is offered once a week at the Woodland Senior Center and will be returning on a similar schedule to West Sacramento’s Riverbend Manor Senior Housing facility, the Davis Senior Center, and the Winters Community Center by this fall.

“Through Bayer Fund’s giving, we’re enabling and strengthening organiza-

How the body changes with age

Metro Special to the Express

Aging is an inevitable component of life.

Young children often cannot wait until they get older because of the freedoms that seemingly come with being more mature.

On the flip side, adults often wish they were young again. Time waits for no person, and with aging comes many changes, many of which manifest physically.

The following are some components of healthy aging that go beyond graying hair and wrinkling skin.

Bones, joints and muscles

According to the Mayo Clinic, with age bones may become thinner and more fragile. Joints will lose their flexibility, while muscles lose mass and strength, endurance and flexibility. These changes may be accompanied by a loss of stability that can result in balance issues or falls. It’s common for the body frame to shrink, and a person may lose a few inches from his or her height.

A doctor may suggest a bone-density test or supplementation with calcium and vitamin D to keep bones as strong as possible. Physical activity that includes strength training can help keep muscles strong and flexible.

Body fat

As muscle mass diminishes, body fat can increase. The Merck Manual indicates that, by age 75, the percentage of body fat typically doubles compared with what it was during young adulthood. The distribution of fat also changes, which can adjust the shape of the torso.

Heart

Organs in the body also age, and cells

Memorial Health. Exercise can help keep the heart as strong as possible.

Urinary tract and kidneys

The kidneys become smaller as a person ages, which means they may not be able to filter urine as effectively. Urinary incontinence may occur due to hormonal changes or because of an enlarged prostate. Furthermore, the bladder may become less elastic, leading to an urge to urinate more frequently.

Memory and thinking begin to die off, making those organs work less efficiently. The heart is one such organ that changes with age. It pumps more than 2.5 million beats during one’s lifetime.

As a person gets older, blood vessels lose their elasticity, and the heart has to work harder to circulate blood throughout the body, reports Johnson tions that are working to make real, sustainable impacts in their local communities across the United States,” said Al Mitchell, President of Bayer Fund.

Older adults experience changes to the brain as they age. Minor effects on memory or thinking skills are common and not usually cause for worry. Staying mentally active by reading, playing word games and engaging in hobbies can help. Following a routine and making lists (as multi-tasking may become challenging) are some additional ways to address memory issues.

These are just some of the changes that can come with aging. Generally speaking, exercising, using the brain and adhering to a balanced, healthy diet can help keep the body functioning well into one’s golden years.

“Programs like Meals on Wheels Yolo County’s Weekend Food Project help combat the critical issue of food insecurity, and we’re proud to play a role with helping even more people in our community have access to healthy, nutritious food.”

Bayer Fund directs funding to organizations that tackle today’s biggest challenges – malnutrition and food insecurity; supporting STEM education; and health and wellness. In 2022, Bayer Fund awarded $13.4 million in grants to more than 2,700 organizations that span urban and rural communities across the country. Since 2017, nonprofit organizations across the U.S. have received nearly $90 million. To learn more about Bayer Fund, visit https://www. fund.bayer.us .

Meals on Wheels Yolo County nourishes and engages seniors countywide who experience mobility challenges and/or isolation that disrupts their good health. With a rich, nearly 50-year history of supporting the needs of older adults both at their doorsteps and in congregate settings, Meals on Wheels thrives thanks to donations of funds and time from the community. To connect with services or to offer support, please visit https://mowyolo.org or call 530-662-7035.

Highlights of the latest exercise guidelines

Metro Special to the Express

Since 2008, the Physical Activity Guidelines have been a vital resource for health professionals and policy makers, serving as a foundation for physical activity and education programs. These guidelines, established and periodically adjusted by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, include recommendations for individuals ages three and over. A full breakdown of the latest guidelines can be found at Health.gov, but the following are some highlights pertaining to various groups.

• Preschool-aged children: The ODPHP notes that children between the ages of three and five should be physically active throughout the day to enhance their growth and development. Caregivers are urged to encourage active play that in- cludes activities of various types

• Children and adolescents: Children between the ages of six and 17 should engage in 60 minutes or more per day of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic physical activity. Kids in this age group also should engage in vigorous-intensity physical activity at least three days per week. Regimens also should include muscle-strengthening activities and bone-strengthening activities at least three days per week

• Adults: The ODPHP urges adults to sit less and move more. The most substantial health benefits can be gained by engaging in at least 150 minutes to 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity or between 75 minutes and 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity each week. Any equivalent combination of the two can suffice as well.

Muscle-strengthening activities also should be part of adults’ fitness regimens. These activities should help to strengthen all the major muscle groups, and adults should aspire to engage in them at least two days per week • Older adults: Older adults who can still follow the guidelines designed for younger adults can continue to do so. But the ODPHP recommends that older adults also incorporate multicomponent physical activity in their workout regimens. This can include balance training to complement aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities. Older adults also are urged to discuss with their physicians how any chronic conditions they may have can affect their ability to safely engage in physical activity.

The Physical Activity Guidelines can serve as a useful resource for people of all ages as they look to live a healthy lifestyle.

Firefighters are losing another ally, too, with the significant increase in overnight temperatures. Nighttime fires were about 28 percent more intense in 2020 than in 2003. And there are more of them — 11 more “flammable nights” every year than 40 years ago, an increase of more than 40 percent.

The upshot is that fires are increasingly less likely to “lie down” at night, when fire crews could work to get ahead of the flames. The loss of those hours to perform critical suppression work — and the additional nighttime spread — gives California crews less time to catch up with fast-moving blazes.

Also, fire whirls and so-called firenados are more common as a feature of erratic fire behavior. The twisting vortex of flames, heat and wind can rise in columns hundreds of feet high and are spun by high winds.

Firenados are more than frightening to behold: They spread embers and strew debris for miles and make already dangerous fires all the more risky. One was spotted north of Los Angeles last summer.

Fires are “really changing, and it’s a combination of all kinds of different changes,” said Jennifer Balch, director of the Environmental Data Science Innovation & Inclusion Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder and a longtime fire researcher who tracks trends that drive wild- fires.

“We’re losing fog.

We’re seeing drier conditions longer and later into the season. And so what that means for California right now is, under these record heat waves, we’re also now butting up against the Santa Ana wind conditions,” she said.

“I think we’re loading the dice in a certain direction.”

In California, the National Guard is entering the fourth year of an agreement to share non-classified information pulled from military satellites that scan for heat signatures from the boost phase of ballistic missiles. When those heat images are associated with wildfires, the agency’s FireGuard system can transmit detailed in- formation to Cal Fire every 15 minutes.

Meteorologist Craig Clements, director of the Fire Weather Research Laboratory at San Jose State University, has chased fires for a decade.

“We can pull up on a fire, and the radar starts spinning and you’re peering into a plume within four minutes,” Clements said. “It gives us information about the particles inside, the structure of it.”

Fire behavior deci- sions are not totally reliant on outside data inputs. Seasoned fire commanders remain firmly committed to a reliable indicator: the hair on the back of their necks. semicircle of supercomputers. Koontz leads a team of researchers in Boulder, Colo., studying a new, volatile and compelling topic: California megafires. over a short period of time.” California is a trove of extreme fires, he said.

Fireline experience and hard-earned knowledge still counts when formulating tactics. But it’s a measure of how norms have shifted that even institutional knowledge can fail.

Mike Koontz is on the frontlines of that battle, tucked into a

“We began to see a clear uptick in extreme fire behavior in California since the 2000s,” said Koontz, a postdoctoral researcher with the Earth Lab at University of Colorado Boulder. “We keyed in on fires that moved quickly and blew up

Koontz is using supercomputers to scrape databases, maps and satellite images and apply the data to an analytical framework of his devising. The team tracks significant fires that grow unexpectedly, and layers in weather conditions, topography, fire spread rates and other factors. What comes out is a rough sketch of the elements driving California’s fires to grow so large. The next hurdle is to get the information quickly into the hands of fire commanders, Koontz said.

The goal: if not a new bible for fighting fires, at least an updated playbook.

Wednesday, July 26

Creek Explorers: Aquatic Macroinvertebrates 2 p.m., Winters Community Library

Wednesdays

Eat Well Yolo Drive – Through Food Distribution, Wednesdays, 3:30 p.m. As supplies last, Winters High student parking lot, off Railroad Avenue

Thursday, July 27

Summer Program: Triple Raptor Rally, 2 p.m., Winters Community Library

Gazebo Concert Series: Boca do Rio, 7-8:30 p.m., Rotary Park Gazebo

Thursdays Eat Well Yolo Food Distribution, first and third Thursdays, 10 a.m. As supplies last, RISE, Inc., 417 Haven St., 530-668-0690

Sunday, July 30

"Winters Wide World of Sports Exhibit" Last Day, 1-5 p.m., Winters Museum, 13 Russell St.

Upcoming

Tuesday, August 1 Winters City Council Meeting, 6:30 p.m., Council chamber (318 First St.), Zoom Meeting info, check www.cityofwinters.org/ city-council-meetings_/

Thursday, August 3

Winters Hispanic Advisory Committee, 6:30 p.m., City Hall Large Conference Room (Abbey Street entrance)

Winters JUSD School Board Meeting, 6 p.m., School District Office, Zoom Meeting info, check https://bit.ly/ WintersJUSDBoardAgendaCommunitySite

Friday, August 5

WTC Presents "Much Ado About Nothing" Opening Night, 7 p.m., Winters Community Center, winterstheatre.org, 530-795-4014

Library Services

Winters Library Open to Public (No School in Session)

Winters Community Library, Mon/Wed: 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Tue/Thu: 12–8 p.m., Fri/Sat: 1–5 p.m.

Teen Tuesday (ages 12-18), Second Tuesdays, 2 p.m.,

Winters Community Library

Bilingual Storytime (ages 0-5), Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m., Winters Community Library

Virtual English Conversation Group Tuesdays, 2-3 p.m., One time registration required: Contact Nancy Pacheco 530-666-8019 or nancy.pacheco@ yolocounty.org

Mangonada Monday (ages 6-12), fourth Monday, 3:30 p.m.

Tech Thursdays, Thursdays, 2-7:30 p.m., call 530-6668005 to schedule an appointment. Bilingual sessions available upon request.

Saturday Matinee, First Saturday, 2 p.m., Winters Community Library

All You Need is Love Romance Book Club, Second Saturday, 4 p.m., Hooby’s Brewing

Older Adult Programs

Winters Senior Foundation Chair Yoga Class for Seniors, Wednesdays, 9:30-11 a.m., St. Anthony Parish Hall (511 W. Main St.)

Winters Senior Foundation Social Gathering Thurdays, 1-3:30 p.m., St. Anthony Parish Hall (511 W. Main St.)

Ongoing

Winters Farmers Market, Sundays, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., Main Street – downtown Winters, discoverwinters. com/farmers-market

Winters Friends of the Library meeting, first Monday, 7 p.m., Winters Community Library, Margaret Parsons Room, wfol.org

Rotary Club of Winters meeting, Thursdays, Noon,

The Buckhorn

Winters Museum public hours Thursday thru Sunday, 1-5 p.m., 13 Russell St.

Winters Open Mic, third Saturday of the month, 6 p.m. (sign-ups begin at 5 p.m.), Downtown Main Street. Kiwanis Club of Winters meeting, fourth Thursdays, 6 p.m., Hooby's Brewing

Democracy Winters meeting, third Saturdays, 10 a.m.Noon, Meeting details in newsletter, contact info@ democracywinters.org

Alcoholics Anonymous meetings: » St. Anthony Parish Hall, 511 Main St. (back entrance) Tuesdays, 7-8 a.m. and Fridays, 7-8 a.m. » Yolo Housing office building, 62 Shams Way: Thursdays, 7-8 p.m. and Sundays, 9 a.m.