Delaware County Meals On Wheels adds new ‘Therapeutic’ Meal Choices with Improved Nutrition

The Delaware County Meals On Wheels pro­gram is now offer­ing clients spe­cial ther­a­peu­tic meals with restricted car­bo­hy­drates or low sodium. Designed for indi­vid­u­als with spe­cial dietary needs, these meals offer food choices with lower car­bo­hy­drates or sodium while meet­ing all stan­dards of the Rec­om­mended Daily Allowance of nutri­ents for older adults.

Man­aged by the Coun­cil for Older Adults, the local Meals On Wheels pro­gram is offer­ing these options which can be used as part of a treat­ment of a dis­ease or a clin­i­cal con­di­tion to elim­i­nate, decrease or increase cer­tain foods or nutri­ents in the diet. The spe­cial ther­a­peu­tic meals require a signed autho­riza­tion form ordered by a physi­cian and/or health­care pro­fes­sional with pre­scrip­tive author­ity. All meals are avail­able in chopped or pureed forms as well.

This newest Meals On Wheels menu offer­ing fol­lows a client “choice” menu option, which began in August of this year. This inno­v­a­tive sys­tem pro­vides clients with a menu each month con­tain­ing daily alter­na­tive meal selec­tions. When paired with nutri­ent analy­sis, older adults are able to select meals which are not only more pleas­ing to their indi­vid­ual palate, but will ensure they receive meals that are nutri­tion­ally balanced.

“Mea­sur­ing 14 cat­e­gories of nutri­tion, includ­ing fiber, pro­tein, fat, and a num­ber of vit­a­mins and min­er­als, the new menus are pre­pared in our own kitchen every day using made-from-scratch cook­ing which allows bet­ter con­trol of salt, fat and calo­ries,” said Jason Krnc, Coun­cil for Older Adults Food and Bev­er­age Ser­vices Man­ager. “All of our menus are approved by dieti­cians and meet local, state and national dietary guide­lines for senior meal pro­grams. Each meal con­tains no more than 700 calo­ries, less than 25 grams of fat and at least 25 grams of protein.”

Over 270 vol­un­teers deliver nearly 15,400 meals each month to over 835 older county res­i­dents who are unable to pre­pare healthy meals. Lunches are also avail­able at four senior din­ing cen­ters through­out Delaware County. This ser­vice, pro­vided on a dona­tion basis, is designed to help seniors remain liv­ing at home while main­tain­ing good nutrition.

In May, the Meals On Wheels Asso­ci­a­tion of Amer­ica awarded Mag­net Accred­i­ta­tion to the Council’s Meals On Wheels Pro­gram. Con­sid­ered the exem­plary gold stan­dard for excel­lence in senior nutri­tion pro­grams, the Delaware County meal pro­gram is one of only 20 nation­ally to have been cho­sen to receive this pres­ti­gious award and the first in Ohio to have received this high­est recognition.

As part of the national Meals On Wheels Asso­ci­a­tion of Amer­ica, one of the goals of the Delaware County Meals On Wheels pro­gram is to help elim­i­nate senior hunger in our com­mu­nity. Accord­ing to the MidO­hio Food­bank, the elderly are among the largest groups strug­gling with food inse­cu­rity and across the county. Research shows that more than 1 out of every 7 seniors expe­ri­ences food inse­cu­rity, defined as lack of access and avail­abil­ity of food. For some clients, a home-delivered meal may be their only meal of the day.

For more infor­ma­tion on receiv­ing Delaware County Meals On Wheels, becom­ing a vol­un­teer or donat­ing to the pro­gram, visit < www.growingolder.org > or call 740–363-6677.

The Coun­cil for Older Adults is a local non­profit orga­ni­za­tion respon­si­ble for plan­ning, devel­op­ing, coor­di­nat­ing and pro­vid­ing ser­vices for older adults and their fam­i­lies in Delaware County. Among the Council’s ser­vices are the county-wide Meals On Wheels pro­gram and Senior Choices, a pro­gram that pro­vides com­pre­hen­sive care man­age­ment and in-home ser­vices. Ser­vices pro­vided by the Coun­cil are made pos­si­ble, in part, by fund­ing through our local senior ser­vices levy.

Posted by Gary Henery on Nov 14 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.