Senior Living

IT'S NOT JUST A MEAL:

The Importance of the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program of 2022

Imagine living alone, being frail or living with a disability, and unable to leave your house without help. Now imagine feeling a hunger pang, opening up your fridge to find it empty, or wondering how you will get your next meal.

For some food-insecure older Americans, that's their daily reality.

Fortunately, some can avoid that scenario, thanks to the Older American Act (OAA). The OAA's nutrition services program provides home-delivered and congregate meals to eligible seniors. 272-million home-delivered meals and 98-million congregate meals were served through the OAA, feeding nearly 4.5 million older adults in 2020. The program is effective and impactful.

How Does the OAA Nutrition Program Work?

Federal grants are provided to states and territories to offer OAA meal services to adults 60 and older. Volunteers and staff from local community organizations deliver meals to homebound older adults, many of whom are at risk for institutionalization. Meanwhile, the congregate meal program serves healthy meals to older adults in group settings like senior centers, churches, and senior housing communities. Both congregate meal and home-delivered meal providers can also offer other services like nutrition education, screening, and counseling.

Why Does It Matter?

The OAA Nutrition Program helps reduce hunger and has the potential to improve health. An evaluation found that 42 percent of participants in congregate meals and 61 percent of home-delivered meals would skip meals or eat less without these programs. The program can also help fight social isolation. Nearly half of congregate meal recipients live alone. Congregate meals give older adults the chance to socialize over food in group settings, with many participants reporting seeing friends more often due to the meals. And perhaps not as self-evident is that the home-delivered program is also associated with reduced loneliness because delivery to homebound individuals is often the only human contact of the day for homebound clients. In turn, reduced isolation can actually improve health and associated rising health care costs. Home-delivered meals, in particular, can also help seniors live in their homes longer, which the majority of older adults want to do.

How Can I Get Help with Meals?

Aging Services, Inc. of Cleveland County has five congregate meal sites:

1. Brand Senior Center - Moore, OK 2. Eastlake Cumberland Presbyterian Church - South Oklahoma City,

OK 3. Norman Senior Citizens Center - Norman, OK 4. Rose Rock Villa - Norman, OK 5. Noble Senior Citizens Center - Noble, OK

If you are interested in congregate meals or homebound delivery meals in Cleveland County, please call Aging Services, Inc. at 405-3213200 or ask for Social Services Worker Ardith Rhoane.

If you are interested in delivering homebound meals as a volunteer, we need your help! Please call 405-321-3200 and ask for Hayley Garcia, Social Services Coordinator, for an opportunity you will be glad you did not miss.

Each county in Oklahoma has an OAA nutrition program. If you live in a different county and are interested in meals, please call your local Areawide Aging Agency, and they will work with you to help. All of us who work within the Older American Act want to make sure that no frail and/or disabled senior living alone goes without a meal, pantry food, socialization, and opportunities for other programs they may be eligible for.