Jessica Mills has been named the new program director for Copper Shores Meals on Wheels, bringing four years of experience as the program’s assessor to her expanded role.
Her previous position prepared her for the director responsibilities by immersing her in program details and serving as the initial contact for seniors seeking meal services.
“It helped me understand not only the needs of our seniors but the needs of our community with resources that may be lacking or other communications that would just make things go a lot smoother,” Mills said. “The assessing role was a great leap in education for me and I look forward to continuing that on.”
Mills takes over as the organization prepares to receive funding from an elder nutrition millage passed by voters in 2025. The millage funding is expected to begin in spring, and the organization has already eliminated its previous waitlist. Copper Shores Meals on Wheels plans to create an online dashboard that will share key program data including the number of seniors served, meals delivered during the year, cost of meals, and partnered organizations and farms that supply ingredients to the program.
The planned dashboard will provide real-time access to program statistics for community members who want to monitor the organization’s activities and impact.
“I really want to help build that trust with the community and I want to make sure moving forward with our millage we’re open and honest and that information and statistics are out there for everybody to get at the tips of their fingers or whenever they want to check in on what we’re doing,” Mills said.
Mills plans to focus efforts in southern Houghton County communities to organize new meet-and-eat sites.
“First thing is we’re really looking down south and that’s where our first outreach is hopefully going to take place,” Mills said. “We’re hoping to jump into those and use those sites to gather some more data and see what other resources we can help in that area as far as maybe some in-home deliveries or weekly frozens, things that we can help spread out from those meet and eat sites.”
“I am very excited to step into this role and continue growing and learning along with our community,” Mills said. “And I am most excited about reaching those farther south communities that need a little bit more support and aren’t normally able to get that.”
More information about Copper Shores Meals on Wheels is available online.
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