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Partnering to Solve Senior Hunger

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Uche

Akobundu

Director of Project

Management and

Impact, Meals on

Wheels America

Ivy Glinski

Director, Banner

Olive Branch

Senior Center

Emily Basten

Program

Development

Manager,

Feeding America

Eileen

Mitchell

Chief Programs &

Logistics Officer,

St. Mary's Food

Bank

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1. Introduction and Project History

2. Local Partnership Guide

3. Partnership in Arizona: Banner

Olive Branch Senior Center and

St. Mary's Food Bank

4. Take Action

5. Discussion

Our Agenda

Partnership Goal

• To strengthen the relationship between Feeding America and Meals on Wheels America, and collaborate to increase access to food assistance for older adults – raising awareness about the serious problem of senior hunger, both at the national level and through collaborations between our networks at the local level.

• Through this effort, we hope to create a productive synergy, leveraging shared innovations and assets to raise awareness about senior hunger and identify tangible solutions to address senior hunger in America.

Meals on Wheels America

• National membership organization comprised of local, community based nutrition programs in all 50 states

• Committed to empowering local community programs to improve the health and quality of life of seniors so that none are left isolated or hungry

• Fueled by the vision of an America in which all seniors live nourished lives with independence and dignity

Meals on Wheels Network• Meals on Wheels is dedicating to supporting our seniors to

extend their independence and health as they age.

• Serving more than 2.4 million seniors and delivering more than 218 million meals annually, via an army of 2 million volunteers

• Meals are tailored to seniors’ unique nutritional needs

• Our home-delivered meal services amount to so much more than a meal for our clients:

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Meals on Wheels Funding Diversity

• Meals on Wheels programs operate and are funded in diverse ways.

• Some are privately funded, and receive no federal funds at all, some are wholly

federally funded, while still others utilize a mix of funding streams.

• All programs allow seniors to contribute voluntarily to the programs to support the

nutrition programs they participate in, such as Meals on Wheels.

• Voluntary contributions are permitted on a sliding scale basis, based on the income of

the participant. Many will not participate unless they can contribute.

• This approach is designed to ensure as many seniors that need services are provided

for and that seniors can have a sense of dignity when participating in programs like

Meals on Wheels.

• Programs like Meals on Wheels are not ‘means-tested’ – meaning that considering a

person’s assets and income as a basis for participation is prohibited.

• On average, about 1/3 of a program’s budget comes from federal funding through the

Older Americans Act

Feeding America

• Feeding America is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.

• We are a nationwide network of 200 member food banks and 60,000 community agencies that provides more than 46 million people, including 7 million seniors, each year.

Feeding America

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IRS Code 170(e)(3)

• The largest area of caution for Feeding America food banks and Meals on Wheels

programs considering collaborating is the handling of donated product and ensuring

that IRS Code 170(e)(3) (“Special Rule for the Deduction of Certain Charitable

Contributions of Inventory and Other Property”) is upheld.

• IRS Code 170(e)(3) only applies to donated product - Feeding America food banks

can allocate purchased food without concern.

• Feeding America food banks may allocate donated food, provided that the donated

product and meals containing donated product are indisputably provided to the

recipient free of cost or for a truly optional and anonymous donation.

• When embarking upon a partnership, document details of roles and responsibilities

for all parties through an agreement or memorandum of understanding (MOU).

Local Partnership

Guide

7 Common Collaboration Models

MEAL PARTNERS SUPPLEMENTAL

FOOD PARTNERS

FOOD PURCHASE

PARTNERS

OUTREACH &

BENEFITS

ASSISTANCE

COMMUNITY

COALITION

PARTNERS

ORGANIZATIONAL

INTEGRATION

ADVOCACY

PARTNERS

Meal Partners

Meals on Wheels secures quality product donated from the food bank to supplement their meal program.

Example: In Vermont, Meals on Wheels of

Bennington County receives about 70% of

its food used to create meals annually from

the Food Bank of Vermont.

Supplemental Food Partners

Food bank provides boxes or bags of food to be delivered to recipients as a supplement to Meals on Wheels meals.

Example: Northern Illinois Food Bank’s

Senior Box Program provides nutritious

easy-to-prepare foods to seniors via

Lifescape Community Services for

persons who are capable of cooking, but

lack access to food due to financial or

functional challenges.

Outreach & Benefits Assistance Partners

Meals on Wheels and local food banks partner to increase access to benefits for eligible clients.

Example: Two-thirds of Feeding

America food banks offer SNAP

Application Assistance, often in the

form of direct volunteer assistance,

a hotline or other localized

outreach or assistance materials.

These materials can be inserted

into meal deliveries or volunteers

could accompany delivery for an

interested and eligible senior.

Food Purchase Partners

Food bank purchases food; Meals on Wheels partner purchases or receives that food to be provided to recipients for free, optional donation or purchase.

Community Coalition Partners

Meals on Wheels and local food banks partner to make an impact for people in their community.

Example: Metropolitan Interfaith Association

(MIFA) and Mid-South Food Bank in Memphis,

Tennessee, are collaborating with area

hospitals to quantify the impact of nutrition on

senior health. In a pilot project they delivered

healthy meals and food boxes to the homes of

seniors after hospital stays.

Advocacy Partners

Meals on Wheels America, Feeding America and local affiliates partner to elevate the voices of the people we serve and advocate for policy solutions that strengthen federal nutrition assistance programs.

Examples include:

Older Americans Act

reauthorization for congregate and

home-delivered meals;

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance

Program (SNAP) strengthened

access such as simplified

applications; and

Commodity Supplemental Food

Program (CSFP) funding to expand

program nationwide.

Organization Integration

Food bank and Meals on Wheels member form one entity to meet community need.

Example: FeedMore, Inc. in

Richmond, Virginia is both a

Feeding America member food

bank and a Meals on Wheels

America member, and was created

with the merger of the Central

Virginia Food Bank and Meals on

Wheels Serving Central Virginia.

Successful Partnership Factors

• Goal alignment and complementing strengths

• Flexibility and willingness

• Strong leadership and positive relationships – leaders are committed and engaged in the partnership

• Constant and intentional communication

• Multiple touch points – food bank and agency partnering in multiple or robust ways

• Spend time together on various coalitions and community initiatives

Local Challenges

• Storage space may be an issue for some Meals on Wheels programs, limiting their ability to accept all the produce and fresh food from the food bank and other local partners

• The food bank typically doesn’t offer packaged food but ingredients – the Meals on Wheels Program needs to know how to cook, and be creative with, these ingredients

• Both organizations often have limited dedicated staff – volunteers could be leveraged, but training is intensive, space can be limited, and in some cases volunteers can be hard to come by

• Funding is the lynch pin that could take operations to the next level

Moving Forward

• Learning from promising

practices of collaborative work

• Relying on each

organization’s expertise

• Creating realistic timelines

and expectations given each

organization’s capacity

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Local

Partnership

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Eileen MitchellChief Programs & Logistics Officer

St. Mary's Food Bank

Phoenix, Arizona www.firstfoodbank.org/

Eileen Madden MitchellChief Programs and Logistics Officer

St. Mary’s Food Bank AllianceSenior Hunger Focus

• Mission Statement: To alleviate hunger through the gathering and distribution of food while encouraging self-sufficiency, collaboration, advocacy and education.

• 1 in 7 Seniors in Arizona live in poverty.

• We have 26 Agency Partners who focus primarily on Senior Feeding. During FY 2015-2016 they distributed 4.9 Million pounds of food in AZ. This is the equivalent of 4 Million Meals for our Seniors.

SMFBA partnership with Banner Olive Branch:

• 1,166,281 pounds of food supplied to Banner Olive Branch

in FY 2015-2016

• 385,00+ pounds already provided this year.

• Food Provided through Grocery Rescue Program and our

Mobile Pantry distributions.

• We value this Partnership in feeding AZ’s Hungry Seniors.

Food Recovery. Simplified.

In order to source more meals, Feeding America has developed MealConnect, a technology platform that maximizes network capacity,

prevents meals from ending up in landfills and empowers food donors to notify their local food

bank when they have food available.

To find out more about MealConnect, visit:

Thank You for Allowing us to be a part of this webinar!

If you have specific questions about our Senior Programs, please use the following to contact us:

Agency Services Hotline Phone: 480-291-3237

Agency Services E-mail: agencyservices@firstfoodbank.org

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Ivy GlinskiDirector

Banner Olive Branch Senior Center

Sun City, Arizona www.bannerhealth.com/locations/sun-city/banner-olive-branch-senior-center

Banner Olive Branch

Partnering with

St. Mary’s Food Bank

Alliance to bring hot

nutritious meals and

food to seniors.

Banner Olive Branch Senior CenterTotal Population Health Management on Wheels

How to get your program rolling

Background• Olive Branch is part of the largest non profit health care system in the

country.

• Prepares over 91,000 meals from scratch annually including 30,000 delivered.

• Focus on sustainability

Two pillars of Service

1 Food Services

2 Social Services

Banner Olive Branch Senior CenterTotal Population Health Management on Wheels

How to get YOUR program rolling

Background

• Olive Branch is located in the first planned retirement community in the world

Let’s get rolling Collaboration is the Key!

Olive Branch has partnered and collaborated with St Mary’s Food Bank Alliance for

over 20 years.

Our partnership/collaboration consists of:

• St Mary’s team and Olive Branch team working together to determine the best way

to get grocery rescue product to the public either through our pantry program or

via our meals programs

• St Mary’s identifies stores within the Olive Branch target area for pick up

• St Mary’s representative and Olive Branch go out to the new stores together to

meet store management

• St Mary’s conducts annual training for recording all product taken in by the center.

Center staff enter poundage directly into online software program for St Mary’s

• Olive Branch picks up from 31 stores weekly

• We use 4 refrigerated trucks

• 85 volunteers have donated over 16,349 hours last year in our Pantry program

Partnership Impact

• Over 1 million pounds of nutritious food collected annually

• Over 91,000 meals prepared from scratch utilizing food from St Mary’s partnership

• Over 30,000 meals delivered annually to homebound seniors

• Over $85,000 cost savings annually

• More food choices for seniors

• Great partnerships with stores and St Mary’s Food Bank Alliance

• Eliminating food waste-non traditional benefits

• Two dedicated organizations working together to eliminate hunger in our community

And finally what does Total Population Health Management have to do with it?

Benefits

• Nutritious Food

• Organic Food

• Meals prepared from scratch

• Esthetically appealing meals

• Cost savings

• Variety

• Great partnerships with stores and food bank

• Eliminating food waste-who else can benefit

Banner Olive Branch Senior Center

Total Population Health Management on Wheels

How to get YOUR program rolling

Benefits

Must

Haves

Total Population

Health

Management

on Wheels

Background

Let’s Get

RollingCreating A

Pantry

Program

Let’s get YOU rolling

Strategy:

Impacting Total Population Health Management Through Food

What do you want to do?

• Create a Pantry Program

or

• Access food from your Local Food Bank for your Meals Program

Creating A Pantry Program

• Seek out your local food bank

• Develop a relationship, highlight your mission and establish a formal partnership

(the formal partnership may take longer than you think so allow for several months).

• When partnership is operationalized your food bank will assign local stores and pick up times

Must haves:

• Adequate space including proper storage and refrigeration

• ServSafe certificate for managers

• Volunteers-must have food handlers card

Must Haves Continued:

• Permits

• Vehicles

• Approved Menus

• Trained Dietary Staff

We are happy to be a part of this Webinar and

welcome any questions

Please feel free to contact us at:

Banner Olive Branch Phone: 623-465-6000

Banner Olive Branch Website:

www.bannerhealth.com/olivebranch

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Take Action

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Next Steps

• Download the Local Partnership Guide for

more ideas and tips

• Collaborate on policy, advocacy and

communication opportunities

• Leverage national campaigns

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Get Introduced

The first step is getting to know one another.

• Find contact information for the Meals on Wheels America

member(s) in your community by typing in your zip code or

searching by city and state:

– mealsonwheelsamerica.org/signup/aboutmealsonwheels

/find-programs

• Find contact information for the Feeding America food

bank(s) in your community by typing in your zip code or

searching by city and state:

– feedingamerica.org/foodbank

DISCUSSION

• Feedback

• Questions

• Comments

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THANK YOU!

Our Speakers:

Ivy Glinski and Eileen Mitchell

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QUESTIONS? CONTACT US!

Uche AkobunduMeals on Wheels America

Director of Project Management and Impact

uche@mealsonwheelsamerica.org

571.339.1629

Emily BastenFeeding America

Sr. Manager of Program Development

ebasten@feedingamerica.org

312.641.4477