When you’re interning in your hometown, you will end up talking to friends and family about the issues at hand. I’m interning with the Oberlin Recreation Department this spring, working toward an associates degree in Public Administration. The topic: finding more ways to provide services to seniors. This is an interview with my mother, Prue Richards, who is the financial secretary for Oberlin Weekday Community Meals. Surely, they serve seniors. They serve people in financial need (and their number of meals served rose dramatically from 2019 to 2020. But when they can get back to doing meals in person — and they serve anyone, regardless of financial need — they represent a community connection that has been drawn out in conversations this spring as being as necessary as new services themselves. Community creates a connection to services. Community helps seniors access those services.