Senior Nutrition Services Region IV, doing business as Meals on Wheels of Southwest Michigan, has announced the launch of a new Medically Appropriate Home-Delivered Meals program, designed to support seniors living with chronic health conditions like diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and heart disease.
Meals on Wheels Director Linda Tinsley tells us the service has always offered its Choice Frozen Meals, which are designed by a dietician. But with support from the Berrien Community Foundation, it’s now designed a new menu with options for clients with those chronic conditions. She says the BCF support makes it possible to do the extra work.
“What it does require is it requires extra education both for our staff and for our clients,” Tinsley said.
Tinsley says Meals on Wheels is rolling out the new program in rural areas, in particular.
“This is running as a pilot to see how it’s received. It’ll help us know where our challenge points are and help provide that client education. So we’re running this as a pilot for Berrien County for people living in rural areas that have even less access to food.”
Tinsley says 16 communities in Berrien County are considered “food deserts.” How is that defined?
“If there’s not a grocery store nearby that is either walkable or providing transportation — and that’s even getting harder as transportation is a continued concern here in Berrien County — and so when people lose that option for especially public transportation, it just makes the situation even more complex and difficult.”
And with 600 clients per month in Berrien County, Tinsley says Meals on Wheels certainly sees a need for more food options.
“Over 50% of our clients have at least one chronic health condition, and many of them have multiple. So that creates even more complex need.”
When available, locally grown produce and proteins will be used in the new medically appropriate meals. Tinsley says this is just one way that Meals on Wheels continues to grow its services at a time when resources are shrinking. She notes the organization has seen funding go down by 30% in the last three years and expects a further decline next year.
“How we’re doing this is, we have our operating funding that is struggling. So we know that we have to build a different infrastructure to keep providing services to people. We have to adapt to make sure we’re really impacting community health, especially in our senior population, but for our community as a whole, and that we have to change our model in order to keep providing things. And currently, relying on the old way of the funding being structured is not something that’s going to stay sustainable…It’s hard to communicate to help people understand that we need a lot of support to continue our current operations.”
Anyone can learn more and volunteer or make at donation at the Meals on Wheels website.
