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Aging department expands meals and GoGoGrandparent pilot; Shaker Place reports staffing gains and plans staff cafe
Summary
Aging officials announced two new congregate meal sites (including a Halal meal site), continued high home-delivered meal volume and expansion of a transportation pilot (GoGoGrandparent). Shaker Place said it eliminated outside agency staff, cut temporary staffing costs and plans a staff-operated cafe and enhanced dementia programming.
The Albany County Department of Aging and Shaker Place nursing home presented complementary budgets focused on services for older residents and institutional staffing stability.
The Department of Aging said it had added two congregate meal sites in 2025 including a Halal meal site in Colonie and reported more than 100,000 home-delivered meals served. The commissioner said the department provided roughly 3,000 rides per month and increased the transportation budget line to reflect demand. The department also highlighted legal-assistance work (about 600 clients) and rising insurance-plan confusion among seniors during open enrollment.
The county’s GoGoGrandparent pilot — a program that lets eligible older residents request Uber/Lyft-style rides by phone — remains in operation: the commissioner said eligibility requires being age 60 and an Albany County resident and that the program supplements existing transportation rather than replacing routine transit. The county reported the pilot is not fully exhausted but some operational constraints and user sign-up processes remain.
Shaker Place Executive Director Mark Olson told the committee the facility eliminated reliance on outside agency staff for the first time in over 20 years and projected combined savings across temporary help and overtime of about $1 million for 2026. Olson said Shaker Place anticipates a conservative increase in private-pay rates (about 3% in January 2026) and expected state IGT funding but budgeted conservatively for IGT receipts.
Olson described workforce initiatives including an on-site nurse aide training program, recruitment through an applicant-tracking system, and a staff cafe under construction that will provide low-cost meals to staff as a retention measure; nine new positions are included to operate the cafe. He also said Shaker Place plans to expand programming for its memory/dementia care unit and intends to provide specialized staff training tied to that unit.
Both the aging department and Shaker Place said they are monitoring state and federal funding changes and focusing on retention and workforce development as primary budget drivers.
