Chinese Immigrants Get a Taste Of Home

County Program Caters to Seniors

The menu is in Chinese. And the food -- tofu with bok choy, beef with black bean sauce, stir-fried chicken with garlic -- is authentic. It has to be. These diners would know the difference.

That's because they lived in China for most of their lives before immigrating to the United States, many to be with their children and grandchildren. But this country can seem an odd place to elderly people who have spent most of their lives elsewhere. And many have felt isolated.

But three times a week, thanks to a Montgomery County program, a community center becomes for them a passport home.

The senior meal program, known as "Something for Everyone," is one of several sponsored by the county and nonprofit organizations that caters to elderly immigrants. In addition to the program at the Plum Gar Community Center in Germantown, which is run in part by the nonprofit Chinese American Senior Service Association, there is a program for Vietnamese and Korean seniors, said Marilyn Mower, the director of the county's senior nutrition program. There is also a senior lunch program that serves kosher meals.

They are ways to reach out to the county's growing elderly immigrant population, she said, and help them get not just a nutritious meal but also all sorts of other social services, such as health care, housing and transportation. The programs, which rely heavily on federal funds, are having a hard time keeping up with the rapid growth of foreign-born residents.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are an estimated 42,000 immigrants over the age of 60 living in the county.

The Chinese program started in the 1990s, when Ling Cheung used to volunteer at the Rockville senior center. She noticed that none of the Chinese seniors she urged to come would show up. When she asked why, they told her that they didn't like the food.

It was too American, they said. Too much meat and potatoes that didn't sit well on their palate. Couldn't the center serve Chinese food, they wondered? Couldn't they use chopsticks instead of a fork and knife?

Cheung, who volunteers now at the Plum Gar center, helped persuade the county to offer ethnic food for the seniors. Now, there are more than 10 lunch programs that serve more than 2,400 meals prepared by ethnic restaurants and community groups. In addition to the immigrant senior program, the county sponsors 15 lunch sites for seniors that serve "traditional American meals" and food with a "Latino flavor," Mower said.

While the food may be the initial attraction for the seniors, it's the socialization and activities that keeps them. At Plum Gar last week, the gymnasium was full of seniors practicing tai chi and playing table tennis. Across the room, there were three tables full of people playing mah-jongg, a Chinese game played with tiles about the size of dominos.

There are also classes in English, computers and photography. There is information about affordable housing, transportation and health care. There's line-dancing and games. In the mornings, volunteers fan out and get copies of Chinese-language newspapers to bring back to the center.

But perhaps the most important aspect of the program is simply getting seniors out of their homes to mingle with peers who share their culture.