Six months after the Vashon Senior Center installed a commercial kitchen, it is serving more people at lunch and participating in a program that enables it to obtain free local produce, while director Ava Apple is looking to increase lunch-time programming and improve transportation to the facility.

In the last year, Apple said, the center has served almost 3,000 meals. It provides a hot lunch four times a week and has seen the number of people who come for meals increase since it finished its kitchen in June and started preparing its own food. Now, cooks plan for about 16 people a day, according to Barbara Hansen, a frequent volunteer assistant to Linda Fox, the meals coordinator.

“We’re feeding more than their stomachs, too,” Apple said, noting sometimes seniors have a hard time getting out and connecting with others on the island. “Social isolation kills you.”

The condition of the center’s previous kitchen made cooking nearly impossible, and the center relied on Vashon Community Care to create the meals it served. Now, Apple said, by preparing its own food, the center is saving $200 a month and placing a renewed emphasis on nutrition. It has had help in that mission from Bernie O’Malley, who donated food from his summer produce stand, and the Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA).

In August, the center started participating in a VIGA program, which provides Market Bucks — coupons for free produce — to a variety of island nonprofits to expand access to locally grown food. During harvest time, these bucks enabled Apple to shop at the farmers market and several farm stands and obtain produce at no cost to the center. Because of that, Apple said, the center was able to obtain at least $500 worth of fresh fruits and vegetables for free.

“It has been so helpful,” she said.

With that program, she added, lunches featured a lot more produce than they had previously, including a large salad at each meal.

Apple noted that she tried to shop from different farmers, who are reimbursed for Market Bucks purchases, and she let people at the center know what food came from where, a topic that started a lot of conversations at lunch as people reflected on their gardening or farming history.

Though cooks prepare meals for about 15, as few as 10 people may come or as many as 20. When creating the menus, those who cook try to include at least one-third of the minimum recommended daily allowances because the center’s meal is often the only hot meal seniors get in a day.

“For the majority of our regulars, this is it,” Apple said. “They don’t cook anymore.”

The center charges a modest amount for the meals and collects payment in a jar so that if someone cannot afford the meal, he or she can eat without drawing attention.

In the coming year, Apple intends to reach out to more seniors and help them get to and from the center.

“Transportation is my next big issue,” she said.

The center has access to a van several social services share, she noted, and she wants to make full use of that.

“My goal is to have a driver and pick people up,” she said. “I bet we could double our participation.”

She also hopes to increase programming around lunchtime, so that people could come for lunch and stay for whatever might follow. She also intends to do more around health-related issues seniors face, she said, including memory loss, as there seems to be a large interest in that on the island.

In the fall, the center was part of a larger effort that offered a documentary and forum about Alzheimer’s disease. More than 100 islanders attended, Apple said. Next month, the center will bring the documentary “Alive Inside: A Story Of Music & Memory” to the Vashon Theatre. The film centers on the transformation music can provide to people with dementia. Vashon Community Care is trying to start a similar program and will be there collecting iPods, Apple added.

The senior center’s budget is small at just $140,000 a year, which covers salaries, programming and overhead. If she had more money to work with in the budget, Apple said she would hire a social worker to help address some of the larger needs of island seniors.

Compared to many communities, Vashon has a large number of seniors, and Apple and others who work with them say that the island must prepare for their needs. The last census, in 2010, showed that out of Vashon’s population of 10,624 people, 785 people were 75 or older, and more than 17 percent were 65 or older, compared to 12 percent in Washington as a whole.

Apple became the director of the senior center in 2012. When she started, she said she felt there was a lot of untapped potential at the center, and she wanted to change that. Now, April will mark three years with her at the helm, and she feels like she is beginning to make genuine progress.

“I feel like I am just getting to the meat of it, addressing the needs of seniors on the island,” she said.