Seniors services, once again our City gets it right!

San Francisco Examiner/Brendan P. Bartholomew, 5/1/16. "San Mateo County senior services on brink of elimination."

The delivery

The Food

.... "... It remains unclear how seniors in some northern Peninsula cities will receive delivered meals once the service is eliminated from the Medical Center. Nonprofit Meals on Wheels programs throughout the U.S. and overseas deliver free or subsidized meals to clients who are unable to prepare their own meals, and who are typically disabled or seniors or both. ....  There are different service levels because Meals on Wheels in San Mateo County is administered by a patchwork of different organizations.

In Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, for instance, Meals on Wheels programs — run by their respective cities — deliver hot meals to clients five days per week, and each visit from a volunteer driver is akin to an informal wellness check, as the drivers are trained to notice signs a client might need help.

But in some other Peninsula towns, some Meals on Wheels clients are served by the San Mateo County Medical Center, which delivers a week’s worth of frozen meals with each weekly drop-off.  Additionally, those deliveries are made by paid couriers, who are not trained to perform wellness checks.  That level of service is less than ideal, said Jim Lange, Pacifica’s senior director of client services, who noted Meals on Wheels drivers are often the first to realize a senior might need medical or social services intervention. “We’re often there before the paramedics,” Lange said.  ....  And while the county hospital can’t offer the level of personalized service provided by Pacifica’s program, County Aging and Adult Services Director Lisa Mancini said she’s grateful for its years of service.

....  Ann Cooney, Pacifica's program director, suspects there are seniors in need who are not currently being served. The program coordinator noted Daly City and Pacifica each have roughly the same number of Meals on Wheels clients, yet Daly City has more than twice Pacifica’s population, and presumably a lot more seniors who would qualify for the program."   Read article. 

The production

Reference. City of Pacifica/Meals on Wheels, "Home-Delivered Meals (HDM." "The City of Pacifica's Home-Delivered meals provides meals to homebound Pacificans age 60 and older who are at nutritional risk because they can neither shop nor cook and have no one to shop and cook for them.  Meals on Wheels can be provided during short-term convalescence or long-term disability.  Each home-delivered meal provides one-third of daily nutritional requirements.  Meals are prepared from scratch in the kitchen at the Pacifica Community Center.  Ready-to-eat meals are delivered to the door by a volunteer Monday through Friday between the hours of 10:45am and 12:30pm.  A suggested donation of $3.50 per meal is appreciated for those 60 years and older.  No eligible individual shall be denied participation in Meals on Wheels because of failure or inability to contribute."  
If you wish to volunteer to assist this food delivery program delivery, visit the reference link.  Under "Team Meals on Wheels", there is a video, 4:57 minutes.   The menu:  May through June, 2016, served Monday through Friday.

Related.  Meals on Wheels America.   San Mateo County Health system, Home Delivered Meals.   

Note photographs. The food, face page image to Topix/Pacifica (from "... Thanks (Pacifica) volunteers for Meals on Wheels help," (no link to the article).  The delivery and  the production is from the Pacifica Meals on Wheels reference. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh