County loses partner for 'Meals on Wheels' for seniors. Will service be reduced?

Stanislaus County will need a new contractor by June 30 for the program that delivers meals for home-bound seniors and cooks food for senior lunch programs.

The Howard Training Center, which has provided the senior meals program for the past 11 years, recently told the county it won't renew its contract for another year. In February, frozen dinners were home-delivered to 424 seniors on a weekly cycle and the nonprofit center in Ceres prepared 3,500 hot lunches served to seniors at community and senior centers across the county.

The Howard center trains adults with disabilities to prepare the hot meals in a commercial kitchen on Stonum Road in Ceres.

Executive Director Carla Strong said the center will stop providing the meals after June 30 because it's charting a new course on vocational training for disabled adults to comply with the federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act of 2016. Almost 250 adults with disabilities receive training in work and daily living skills from the Howard center.

The county department of Aging & Veterans Services is looking for new partners for what's often called the "Meals on Wheels" program. It is exploring a few ideas before releasing a request for proposals from potential contractors, said Jill Erickson, an Aging & Veterans Services manager.

"We are going to need some help to keep the same level of service," Erickson said.

The Howard center was the only organization to make a bid for the senior nutrition contract last year. With the training center ending the contract, the county is hoping for involvement from other groups.

Erickson said the county could work with a new contractor for the entire program or piece it out to other nonprofits, community groups, schools or even a hospital cafeteria.

Participating groups could provide home-delivered meals in the designated service areas including Modesto-Salida, Turlock-Denair, Ceres-Hughson, Oakdale-Riverbank-Waterford, and Patterson-Newman. Hot meals are served at the senior center and three other locations in Modesto, while other "congregate" meal sites are spread across the county from Oakdale to Newman.

The Turlock Gospel Mission will provide lunches for seniors in a pilot project starting in April.

Erickson said the county owns the vehicles used by the Howard center to deliver frozen dinners to homes once a week, and those vehicles would be made available to new program partners. The Howard center has been purchasing the frozen meals, with fresh milk and fruit, from an outside vendor called Bateman Senior Meals, Erickson noted.

As of Friday, funding for once-a-week delivery of seven meals to homes came to an end. Starting in April, seniors will get five frozen meals for the week.

Daniel Marsh, a home-bound senior in Modesto, said Thursday he received notices on the reduction in home-delivered meals and the county's search for a new contractor. "We don't know if we are going to get our Meals on Wheels," Marsh said. "It helps me with my food budget. The food is quite good. I don't know how many thousands of meals they deliver to seniors."

Margie Palomino, director of Aging & Veterans Services for the county, said agreements for government funding obligate the county to provide a senior nutrition service and, "at the very least," it will continue with home-delivered meals.

Last year, the Howard Training Center entered an agreement with the county for $630,000 in grant funding for providing at least 120,000 home-delivered meals countywide and $292,000 in funding for preparing at least 48,000 hot meals for congregate sites. The agreement runs from July 1, 2017 through June 30.

The federal funding for the nutrition program is not expected to cover all costs but requires a 10 percent local match. It's why the county prefers to contract with nonprofit groups, which can raise additional funds to offer more service, Erickson said.

The program has paid $5.50 per meal to Howard Training Center to cover food, labor, workers compensation and vehicle expenses. Strong said it does not even cover the food cost. The center's fundraising makes up the difference.

Erickson said the federal allocations for senior meals in the next fiscal year, starting July 1, are not known yet. She expects the program reimbursement for any participating groups will be from $5 to $5.50 per meal.

In 2012, the senior nutrition program almost closed for the final two months of the fiscal year because it nearly ran out of money. Donations poured in to continue deliveries, but the program was scaled back while continuing service to the oldest seniors.

Strong said the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act will fundamentally change its approach to vocational and life skills training for adults with disabilities.

The federal law is serving to eliminate special arrangements under which the Howard program and similar centers across the country have paid less than minimum wage to clients in supervised job programs. It will require the center to refocus on skills training so clients can enter the competitive job market and work for employers in the community.

The Howard center plans announcements on the changes in the coming months, Strong said.

This story was originally published March 31, 2018 at 2:51 PM with the headline "County loses partner for 'Meals on Wheels' for seniors. Will service be reduced?."