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Donna Smallwood director tells Parma council senior programs grew to 24,000 visits, warns meals service near capacity
Summary
Senior center director Erin Lawley told Parma City Council the Donna Smallwood Activity Center logged more than 24,000 visits in 2025 and delivered or served about 37,000 meals, and asked council to maintain funding for staff, transportation and programming amid capacity limits.
Erin Lawley, director of the Donna Smallwood Activity Center, told Parma City Council during a budget hearing that the center recorded “over 24,000 visits to our center” in 2025 and that staff delivered and served more than 37,000 meals last year.
The presentation, on the senior center’s administrative (Fund 026), meals (Fund 185) and transportation (Fund 188) budgets, outlined rising participation and strained operational capacity. Lawley said membership growth included more than 650 new members over two years, with about 400 renewing last year, and that the membership database currently lists roughly 1,500 names. “We are close to capacity for this service,” she said of the meal program, noting kitchen space and staffing limit how many meals the center can prepare and deliver.
Lawley highlighted staffing changes and services: the senior center recently hired licensed social worker Elizabeth Folkroud to replace an unplanned vacancy; the center operates a full-time meals coordinator, three part-time kitchen staff and five part-time delivery drivers who handle roughly 100 home-delivery meals daily. Nutrition coordinator Doug Glass was identified in the presentation as a key member of the meals team. The center also operates a transportation program that provided more than 11,000 round trips in 2025, prioritizing medical appointments and grocery shopping.
Funding for many programs comes from a mix of city budget lines and grants. Lawley said some programming costs are reimbursed through Cuyahoga County senior services grants and other regional partners. She flagged several line items where county or federal dollars offset city expenditures and said the center uses those reimbursements to return revenue to the general fund.
Council members asked about staffing and expansion of hours. Lawley said the center currently opens 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and that expanding hours would require additional staffing and AFSCME negotiations because most current employees are union members with defined work-hour limits.
Lawley also outlined potential training and revenue opportunities: the transportation line includes funds for Community Transportation Association training to create a 'train-the-trainer' capacity that could generate revenue by training drivers from other centers.
The senior center’s presentation closed with a request that council preserve program funding and consider partnerships to address kitchen and delivery capacity challenges. The hearing continued with other departmental presentations.
