Essential Community Services that Improve Lives
Whistlestop Meals
Nutrition is important for our senior and disabled citizens. So is companionship. We offer both at our Whistlestop Depot Café. Diners can choose from a variety of lunchtime menu items. Every day there is a hot, main entrée, a fresh homemade soup of the day, individual-size pizzas, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, vegeburgers, turkey deli sandwiches, desserts and beverages. All are at affordable, below market prices. The café has become a vibrant, popular hangout for our clients, evident by the ever-present laughing and animated conversation.
Every meal is nutritious, healthy, and delicious. And our clients love the fact that they have the power of choice. They get to choose what they eat, not what an anonymous dietitian decides what they will eat.
The Whistlestop Depot Café is open for lunch not only to Marin’s seniorpopulation, but to the public as well.
Whistestop Wheels
If you live in or visit Marin County it is impossible to miss the 50 Whistlestop Wheel buses that transport the county's elderly and disabled citizens to and from essential services. We offer rides to medical appointments, stores, family members and friends—anywhere our clients need to go.
Our buses also offer regular transportation services for a number of special programs, such as Senior Access and the Ecumenical Association for Housing, that help the elderly and disabled.
We work with Novato Community Hospital to offer the Novato Health Express, a medical-only shuttle service for Novato’s elderly and disabled
We provide 140,000 rides per year in all, of which 20,000 are for those in wheelchairs. Without our rides, many of these people would be isolated.
Whistlestop Programs
Because of our programs, our clients remain active community members. Wherever Marin seniors need help, Whistlestop tries to be there. We offer multicultural support, including one-on-one multilingual assistance on issues such as housing, health care, legal advice, and social security.
We have health education and disaster preparedness programs for seniors as well as a senior employment program. We give tax preparation assistance, counsel on health insurance, offer senior peer counseling and help seniors attain U.S. citizenship. And we offer classes for seniors striving to learn English.
