There's a reason why the taste buds of those eating them probably noticed a difference in the hot meals they've received over the last week: A new caterer is delivering the noon delicacies distributed through the local "congregate" and "home-delivered" meal programs in Clay County.

Chad Plueger, owner and operator of the Spencer-based Cabernet Catering of Spencer, was recently awarded a contract through June 30 to provide meals five times a week to Dinner Date program participants who dine at the Spencer Area Activity Center and to those program participants who have meals delivered to them at Sunset Apartments. His contract with the Northwest Aging Association also includes meals being catered and delivered three times a week to the Royal Community Center and twice a week to individuals at the Hap Ketelsen Community Center in Everly.

The Spencer Area Senior Center took over administering the two local programs in September 2003 after Northwest Aging Association closed its Spencer kitchen. In taking over the Meals on Wheels and Dinner Date programs, and becoming a "participating restaurant" with Northwest Aging Association, the senior center site has hosted Steve Lux of Red's Catering, Hartley, and Iowa Lakes Community College (ILCC), both of which have catered and served meals onsite.

Representatives from the private nonprofit corporation devoted to assisting adults age 60 and over and from the northwest Iowa community college mutually agreed recently to disengage from their food service contract and to seek a new caterer.

"This is the first time we've worked with Cabernet (Catering)," said Cynthia Beauman, Northwest Aging Association's director.

"We're looking forward to working with them and to hopefully keeping (this service) local and to keeping a good quality product for the folks to consume."

ILCC, which nicknamed the Spencer operation "Laker Cafe," invested approximately $150,000 in remodeling the local senior center kitchen. Hopes were that the meal service provided at the Spencer Area Activity Center, which began in the fall of 2006 when two local residence halls were finalized, would create an "intergenerational experience."

"A lot of that was predicated on the expectation that we would have optimal occupancy in those fourplexes of 32, with a maximum capacity of 40. I don't think in the two years that they've been operating we've had more than seven (occupants in the residence halls)," ILCC President Harold Prior said. "Kitty Conover, our dean at the Spencer campus, and our staff did a marvelous job trying to be as creative as possible, though. We've housed student teachers there and some other interns who need lodging for a shorter period of time, but they weren't going to contribute the critical mass of students on a meal service plan that was going to make that financially feasible. We had a great relationship with the Spencer Area Activity Center and with Northwest Aging Association and worked very well with all of those folks, but there just wasn't enough business to make that particular activity pay. We were losing money in that particular part of our operation and just could not justify a continued loss of revenues."

Prior reported by the time ILCC staff had made the decision in late 2007 to discontinue food service at the Spencer site, monthly losses in terms of revenues compared to expenses were averaging between $8,000 and $10,000 a month.

"We could have continued it because we do have other resources, but it's hard to justify continuing that particular service when the plan didn't work out as well as we had hoped and we were losing money in that particular individual enterprise at that clip," he said.

The new kitchen appliances not permanently affixed in the Spencer kitchen will be moved and used in other ILCC applications, the community college president added.

"Other than that, if it was a permanent fixture or something that was attached to the wall or the floor, we left them there," Prior said. "...It's one of those times where it was a really good business concept. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the dormitories full or even close to full. That's what really hurt on the revenue side."

Plueger, who began catering the area's home-delivered and congregate meals on March 3, is currently delivering an estimated 50 meals to the Spencer Area Activity Center Monday through Friday. Cabenet Catering is also providing around 43 meals to residents of Sunset Apartments in Spencer, as well as 18 meals twice a week to the Hap Ketelsen Community Center in Everly and 10 meals three times per week to the Royal Community Center.

Northwest Aging Association receives federal funding, or "credit," for meals served under its nutrition program umbrella. When asked to disclose terms of the agreed-upon contract with Cabenet Catering, Beauman said, "It depends on how many meals they serve. It's so much per meal. But I'd rather go with what it costs us to put a meal in front of someone: It costs us about $5.56 to put that meal in front of a person who's going to eat it. And that includes the cost of the contract and all the other fixed overhead costs, which is administering the program. And nobody pays for a meal; we have suggested contributions. Those suggested contributions are $3.50 - $5.50 to help defray the cost of that meal."

The Northwest Aging Association advisory council, which is scheduled to meet today, is expected to make a recommendation to the corporation's board of directors on Wednesday regarding contracts starting July 1. Beauman reported Cabernet Catering has submitted a bid to contract meals for the next two years. Entities submitting other bids include: Sandans Catering of Graettinger, which currently caters meals in Emmet and Palo Alto counties; Red's Catering of Hartley, which delivers meals in Dickinson County; Lakeshore Cafe, which provides Dinner Date meals in Buena Vista County; and Central Catering of Hawarden, which serves Dinner Date menus to three other northwest Iowa counties.