Some displeased with change in Meals on Wheels policy

WASILLA — At 75 years old, Annalee Owens has lived a full life. She came to Alaska decades ago, bought property off Knik-Goose Bay Road, built a cabin, and was active in dog mushing. Like many seniors opting to stay at home as long as possible, Owens takes advantage of programs geared toward that goal—including the national Meals on Wheels (MOW). Now, a recent, and somewhat sudden change in Wasilla Area Seniors Incorporated’s (WASI) program has her up in arms.

Owens suffers from asthma and doesn’t get around as well as she once did. For the past couple of years, she has participated in the WASI MOW program. The program is usually run through local senior nutrition programs where lunch is provided to participants at a nominal fee—or donation. Many seniors opt to have those meals served restaurant-style where they gather for food and fellowship.

Others, like Owens, cannot make the daily lunch dates and opt to have a home-delivered meal. Owens says she lives out at the end of the line, so to speak.

“I live two miles out past Knik Lake. I’ve been there for 28 years and I’m totally isolated,” Owens said. “I have asthma and my driveway is 150 feet long.”

Owens said for the past two years or so, she has had an arrangement with the program meal deliverer to leave her Monday through Friday lunch in a cooler at the end of the drive. She said being so far out from town meal arrival times can vary greatly. With her health issues, Owens said she sometimes isn’t dressed when the meal arrives. With the agreed setup, Owens said she can venture out when she gathers the strength to, bring her meal from the cooler, heat it and have lunch.

Owens said on June 23, a letter from WASI Program Manager Ruth Banks accompanied her meal. The letter said that effective June 26—the next delivered meal date, meals had to be delivered to a person. The letter stated: “As summer temperatures rise, we face additional concerns about food safety when we must leave food unattended outside your home. In fact, we…cannot guarantee the safety of food left…in a cooler.”

Banks’ letter said the program would only deliver to a person who can receive a hand-to-hand transfer at the time of delivery.

“I know this imposes a burden that you didn’t face before, and I trust that you know WASI only takes these steps when they are truly necessary. If you have any questions, please call me,” Banks stated in the letter.

Owens said she did call as soon as she read the letter, but said she was hung-up on after expressing her feelings about not only the delivery change but about the quantity and quality of the meals.

“Having food is important to me,” Owens said. “Having to beg or fight for it, I’m not going to do. How much farther will people go to drive us off our land? I think these people decided to make (cutbacks) changes to make themselves look good. That’s not the reason you have the program. Someone needs to answer these questions.”

Owens said back in mid-winter, the WASI program made changes to its meal plan. Instead of a soup and salad accompanying the lunch, participants had to choose one or the other. Owens said food quality also has dropped since about the same time. Another WASI senior contacted the Frontiersman concerning the meals’ quantity and quality this spring.

Mat-Su Seniors, which operates the same program at the Palmer Senior Center does leave meals in coolers, but has a signed agreement in place between the program and the client. “There are food safety issues and each (participating MOW) organization has a choice,” said Mat-Su Seniors CEO Rachel Newberg about requiring a direct meal handoff or leaving it in a certain location so the client can retrieve it later. The agreement contains food safety information as well as a form signed by the recipient noting it is their responsibility to assure the meal is eatable. In effect, it releases the program from any risk involved in possible food spoilage.

Contacted Friday, Banks wouldn’t comment, referring questions to WASI Executive Director Chuck Foster.

“We want to deliver meals face-to-face rather than leave them for clients on a swing, or chair or porch. We have, in the past, provided meals in coolers, yet we struggle to make that service work because some clients don’t always leave a cooler, or it has no ice, or no top,” said Foster. “That leaves the driver with a bad choice…leave the meal in an unsuitable environment, or don’t leave the meal.”

Foster said if no meal is left; it becomes waste, so drivers became accustomed to leaving the meal in a designated spot if requested. Foster gave an example where a neighbor had been taking the meal for an entire week while the client was hospitalized.

“Unfortunately that impulse to serve seniors in a way they preferred became more rule than exception,” Foster said. “It seems (Owens) is upset that we don’t want to leave a meal in a cooler. Actually, we are happy to leave the meal in coolers where we can be sure the meal will be properly cared for. When clients have called, we are able to review their particular case with them, and in almost all of those cases, we have been able to find a way to meet the senior’s needs, while assuring less waste and guaranteeing food safety.”

Foster said face-to-face contact was another reason for the policy change.

“(MOW) is more than a meal, it is also a frequent contact between a delivery person and the meal recipient. In some cases, this contact, which we call a ‘wellness check’ rarely occurred. When this check doesn’t happen because recipients always receive their meal from a cooler, we are failing in our responsibility to maintain that contact,” Foster said. “We implemented this policy now because higher temperatures in summer place an added risk when meals are left out. When we decided that we could no guarantee safety without making changes, it made no sense to continue doing it the same way even for one more day.”

Regarding Owens situation, Foster said there may have been circumstances program officials may not have considered.

“We want to ensure that your food is not only safe, but as convenient as we can make it. (The invitation) to call us resulted in several calls that allowed us to make individual accommodations for people who need it. That kind of communication is golden. We find out what the need is, and we address it,” said Foster. “This is another way of saying that we have a policy to cover the vast majority of recipients — and the vast majority are fine with receiving meals from the delivery driver — and we provide accommodations when the policy doesn’t make sense.”

Regarding menu selections, Foster said, some months ago, program officials evaluated the menu and found that it did not serve many of seniors who have diabetes, well enough.

“We engaged a new dietitian to help improve our menu and we since rolled out these changes in our dining room and in our home-delivered meals. One of the first changes made in our dining room was to correct our calories served. In short, we served too much food,” Foster said. “A lot of that turned into waste, and some simply made it harder for seniors to eat healthy.”

Foster said program officials understood at the time that this would appear that we are removing diners’ choice, yet they feel the changes are reasonable, generous, and nutritionally sound.

“We just don’t offer the same volume as before. But we also don’t see the same volume of waste as before,” said Foster.