Senior News December, 2003 Vol. 24. No. 12

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

New donations will feed frail seniors seven meals a week

Task force looks at ways to protect seniors from multiple Rx interactions

Twenty issues rise to level of priority for seniors

Many qualify for food stamps

First anniversary of veggie meals

HSU Over-60 Program still the best deal for seniors

Saving money by using over-the-counter medications

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Home delivered meals
New donations will feed frail seniors seven meals a week
by Joy Ehlert

Imagine eating solid well-balanced meals, but only five days a week. What would you do on Saturdays and Sundays if you couldn't cook for yourself? You'd snack all day. That's what Ruth Alice Morris did before her home delivered meals were extended from five a week to seven.

"I have birth defects in both ankles and arthritis from my ankles to my lower back," she explained. "It makes it difficult for me to stand up long enough to cook anything, even a box meal with instructions on it." Ruth Morris is not alone.

Enter the Humboldt Senior Resource Center's Nutrition Program which currently takes five hot meals a week to Ruth and 190 other home-bound seniors. The program received a boost last summer when the Eureka Rotary Club pledged $10,000 a year for the next three years to the Home Delivered Meal Program. That amount has also been matched by the California Endowment. This money will allow the Nutrition Program to offer extended service to the most frail seniors receiving home delivered meals - delivering seven meals a week rather than the current five - and serve a greater geographical area. This expansion of meal service has already begun with the new funding.  

This partnership goes beyond the contribution of funds. Rotarians have donated their skills and their professional expertise to promote community awareness about the need for home delivered meals. This three-year project will involve development of radio and television promotions and poster campaigns with the goal of increasing ongoing funding from the public so the needs can be met.

Population growing
Keeping up with the demand for services and decreasing the waiting time to get into the program are challenges the Home Delivered Meal Program faces. With the first wave of baby boomers hitting their late 50s no one can deny that the senior population is going to take a big jump, and the need for all senior services including home delivered meals will increase.

The California Dept. of Finance did a demographic study to predict the growth in the population of people older than 50. The increase is steep through 2020 in California, and the increase is more rapid in Humboldt County which has become a desirable retirement destination for an increasing number of people. Since 1983 the need for meals has increased 54 percent. In the next 20 years the overall increase will be another 64 percent, which means an increase from 31,000 home delivered meals in 1983 to 79,000 meals per year in 2020.

We already know it is more cost effective to help seniors stay in their homes as long as possible. They are happier, healthier and suffer less from depression when they can stay near loved ones, are surrounded by family mementos and their pets, and remain living in the neighborhoods in which they spent their younger adult lives. One of the lesser-known facts from the Center on Hunger and Poverty is that the cost of one year of home delivered meals is about the same as the cost for a one-day stay in the hospital. It is therefore more important than ever that we are ready with the services needed to keep up with the demand and enable people to remain independent in their homes.

We cannot rely solely on federal and state funding. Through the Eureka Rotary's assistance we are entering a campaign to increase public awareness about our growing need and how they can help.         Donations are always welcome. Did you know that a donation of $104 will provide meals for one month and $625 will provide meals for a senior for six months? For questions or further information please contact the Senior Nutrition Program at 707-443-9747.       

Joy Ehlert is director of HSRC's Nutrition Program. Her e-mail is jehlert@humsenior.org. Donations may be made to 1910 California Street, Eureka, CA 95501.