Volunteers who decided to organize Groton Community Meals in September 2014 understood there was a need to provide free food in their community. Within a month, they discovered exactly how much demand there was: each Monday evening they served as many as 90 meals.

So when the group recently was searching for a bigger space with a kitchen that could better accommodate such extensive weekly meal preparation, Groton town officials were eager to help. In fact, Town Manager Mark Oefinger called finding an appropriate existing site for the group a no-brainer.

We couldn’t agree more and commend the town officials who helped the group secure space at the town’s senior center, thereby ensuring Groton Community Meals will continue providing a vital service to so many local residents.

Come next month, Groton Community Meals will begin cooking and serving Monday evening meals four times a month at the Groton Senior Center. Groton Director of Human Services Marge Fondulas expects as many as 50 more diners will enjoy the meals once the service moves. This is in addition to the 85 to 115 now regularly served weekly.

The added numbers are likely not just because the Senior Center can accommodate more people. The center also is located in a busy municipal hub near the public library, Town Hall, an elementary school and within walking distance to several neighborhoods whose residents are predominantly elderly or lower income. This gives the center a distinct edge over Faith Lutheran Church, which so generously has served as meal site four Mondays a month since the program’s inception and will continue to host meals one Monday a month.

At its most basic level, Groton Community Meals provides food. At a time when so many continue to struggle financially in the region’s stagnant economy, providing food certainly fills a key requirement.

But Groton Community Meals also provides many other benefits. It brings neighbors together, joins generations and builds community around dinner tables. Fondulas said true friendships are fostered at the meal site.

For the elderly especially, loneliness and isolation too often can result in a diminution of mental and physical health. With so many local seniors already comfortable with the Groton Senior Center, perhaps even more of the town’s elderly now will enjoy sharing a community meal on Monday evenings.

In fact, community meals are no doubt needed every evening. Fondulas said the group would love to expand the service in this manner and is exploring ways to make this happen. We encourage community leaders to come together to ensure such expansion soon is made possible because people must eat — and converse — daily.