It’s been 50 years since the start of the national Senior Nutrition Program for older adults and on Wednesday, Lewiston’s mealgoers will celebrate with a little luck o’ the Irish.
Scott McGee, head of the Lewiston Senior Nutrition Program, said he will be serving the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal of corned beef and cabbage beginning at noon at the Lewiston Community Center. Representatives of the local Area Agency on the Aging will also be present to address the crowd.
Kristin Schmidt, director of the Area Agency on Aging that represents the five counties in north central Idaho, said the program has been a success in helping to reduce hunger for older Americans as well as provide a healthy environment for socialization and networking.
“The meal sites do an incredible job of serving congregate meals and home meals and recruiting volunteers, submitting paperwork and having the permits they need,” Schmidt said. “They’re the real heroes.”
The program has not been without challenges, however, especially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For a while, most of the 12 meal sites in north central Idaho were closed. When they reopened, several went to curbside delivery only and eventually opened up to on-site congregate meals and home delivery.
Home delivery has always been an option. But Schmidt said when COVID-19 restrictions hit, she tried to fit in as many people as she could on the home delivery service and maxed out the budget. Currently, no additional people are being enrolled for home delivery and there is a waiting list for people wanting to apply.
There are no restrictions, however, on the number of people who can be served at the on-site congregate meals.
McGee said in a typical week he serves somewhere between 10 and 50 people at the community center. Another 80 or so meals are delivered to home-bound people who can’t make it to the center. The number of people served each week has continued to grow over the past two years, he said.
“In the past, there are 11 other meal sites like mine (in Region 2), so they’ve been able to supplement their budgets by taking money from other programs,” McGee said. “But now we’re unable to do that. We’re getting the same amount of money that we did — it’s just inadequate. So now we’re just having to live in the reality of what we have is what we have.”
Since 1972, the Senior Nutrition Program has supported nutrition services for older adults. Funded by the Older Americans Act, local senior nutrition programs serve as hubs for older adults age 60 and older, to access nutritious meals and other vital services that strengthen social connections and promote health and well-being.
According to the Area Agency on Aging, each year in the U.S. up to half of adults age 65 and older are at risk of malnutrition, and more than 10 million face hunger. In Idaho, one out of six elderly people are food insecure. In communities throughout the U.S., older adults sometimes lack access to the high-quality, nutritious food they need to remain healthy and independent.
The senior nutrition program network helps older adults by promoting healthy eating, decreasing social isolation and improving health. The program also provides connections to home and community-based services that can support independence and overall well-being.
In fiscal year 2021, the Idaho Senior Nutrition Program served 1,163,630 congregate and home-delivered meals to over 17,500 clients statewide.
Because his budget is so tight, McGee said the city of Lewiston helps supplement the program for things like materials and cleaning supplies.
For example, because of the increased number of home deliveries during COVID-19, McGee had to double the number of food trays he orders.
“That’s more than $6,000 a pop and last year we went over budget,” he said. “We used to do a buffet on Wednesday and we’d get 100 to 125 people. But we don’t do that anymore because of staffing. With two full-time and one part-time (employees) it’s impossible to hire anybody right now.”
Schmidt said the agency’s yearly budget runs from July 1 to June 30, so for now there’s no immediate relief for the budget crunches the meal sites are facing.
“So our funding hasn’t changed since November,” she said. “But there’s been some real wonderful advocacy work by the Idaho Commission on Aging and the possibility of additional funding. But we’re still waiting on that. I’m not sure if that’s been approved or would be available.
“My hope — and I know it’s the hope of all the (Area Agencies on Aging) and Community Action — is that there will supplemental funding for this year. … We just really enrolled too many people for the budget that we received and we’re not able to enroll any more people.
“But the wonderful thing about going to the meal site, it’s also an opportunity for socialization and to learn about other resources and other things going on in the community. One of the benefits is, it reduces isolation and loneliness.”
Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.
