Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation tells council its school mental‑health and senior‑meals programs grew in 2025–26

Tammy Verhus, interim executive director of the Rainier Foothills Wellness Foundation, presented the nonprofit’s program outcomes to the Eden Plus City Council on July 13.

Verhus said the foundation’s school mental‑health program served 82 students during the 2025–26 year: 62 at Enumclaw High School, nine at Enumclaw Middle School and 11 at Thunder Mountain. She said six high‑school clients had “graduated from therapy.” Verhus reported an improvement in the program’s average incidence of behavioral intervention (she described the average rising from 0.69 to about 1.016 and called that a 32 percent improvement) and a small rise in average GPA for the cohort (she cited a 1.25 percent increase).

The presentation also covered the foundation’s senior hot‑meals program. Verhus said the program currently serves about 66 seniors and has served 80‑plus seniors year‑to‑date; the foundation prepares roughly 400 meals per week from scratch, delivers three days per week and relies on about 87 volunteers.

Verhus thanked the council for ongoing support and invited council members to contact staff or the foundation with follow‑up questions.

Why it matters: The foundation’s mental‑health services operate inside local schools and are tied to classroom behavior and academic outcomes, while the senior meals program affects service capacity for older residents. Funding or partnership choices by the city could affect program scope and continuity.

Additional details and caveats: The presentation gave program totals and percentage changes as described by Verhus. The precise definition of the behavioral‑incident metric and the underlying incident counts were not presented at the meeting and were described by Verhus as not being shared in detail. The 1.25 percent GPA change was presented as a small increase; the staff report did not provide cohort sizes beyond the counts above.