For individuals facing health challenges and limited mobility, ensuring adequate nutrition can be a significant hurdle. Meals on Wheels (MOW) programs offer a vital service, delivering meals to the homes of eligible adults. This article explores the nutritional aspects of Meals on Wheels, its benefits, and how it caters to diverse dietary needs.
What is Meals on Wheels?
Meals on Wheels (MOW) is a federally funded nutrition program designed for eligible adults who are at least 60 years old, are unable to leave their homes without assistance, and cannot meet their daily nutritional needs. These programs aim to combat food insecurity and promote well-being among older adults who may lack the means or ability to prepare nutritious meals for themselves.
Nutritional Standards and Menu Planning
MOW programs prioritize nutritional balance and adherence to dietary guidelines. Menu standards are based on current federal and state guidelines, ensuring that meals provide essential nutrients. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (RDNs) play a crucial role in planning and preparing menus, ensuring that all meals provide a minimum of one-third of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) and meet the most current USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
Dietitians carefully monitor levels of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars, incorporating recommended amounts of fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Meals are prepared at a local kitchen using fresh ingredients. The menu changes daily with a variety of entrées, including vegetarian meals. The menu is on a four-week rotation with different meal items each day of the week.
Variety and Special Dietary Needs
Recognizing that individuals have diverse dietary needs and preferences, Meals on Wheels programs offer a range of options. A wide variety of meals is available, such as Chinese and Latino meals. The regular menu is also diabetic-friendly.
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MOW programs also cater to specific medical conditions with medically tailored meals. For example, cardiac meals feature menus with lower sodium items and fewer carbohydrates and come with skim milk and a low-carbohydrate snack to enjoy between meals. Renal-focused meals, for people with decreased kidney function, have less sodium, potassium, and phosphorus and are served with juice instead of milk. Meals can also be adjusted for those needing mechanical soft or pureed diets due to difficulty chewing or swallowing food. If you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, or are dairy- or gluten-free, Meals on Wheels can also accommodate your needs and tastes.
Benefits Beyond Nutrition
Beyond providing nutritious meals, Meals on Wheels programs offer additional benefits. MOW drivers also perform an informal check-in with the people they visit and often notice any concerns needing to be addressed.
Accessing Meals on Wheels
Eligibility for the home-delivered meals program is determined by need, not income. Those individuals applying for home-delivered meal service are assigned to a Caseworker who completes an assessment in the applicant’s home to determine eligibility, explains the program, and provides information on community resources and services. Once enrolled, onboarded, and receiving home-delivered meals, participants are reassessed every three months, either by phone or a home visit, to determine continued eligibility.
Research and Impact
To ensure meals have a positive impact on clients, the Nutrition, Health, and Impact Department oversees the use of the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), a validated nutrition screening instrument, which allows us to determine whether or not our meal program improves the malnourished state of those we serve. We strive to stay current on nutrition research pertaining to the aging population, with special emphasis on Home Delivered Meal participants.
A review of the literature was undertaken to identify the nutritional needs of elderly MOW consumers and factors affecting the ability of existing programs to meet those needs. Several studies suggest the nutritional intake of MOW consumers is below recommended levels, although the risk of nutritional deficiency has not always been identified. The literature indicates the effectiveness of Meals on Wheels programs are affected by a range of issues including the appropriateness of nutritional standards, menu selection, portion control, level of consumption and customer satisfaction.
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