Coastline Elderly Services provides meals, social connections to local seniors

Tuesday morning, Scelena Combs plated 180 Meals on Wheels out of the Brooklawn Senior Center to be delivered to seniors in their homes.

Approximately 800 more meals were delivered by Coastline Elderly Services to Boa Vista Towers.

Coastline Elderly Services Planning Director Zach Boyer said preventive services to keep seniors aging in their community and in their own homes are so important with experts saying that by 2030, adults over the age of 60 will be larger in number than those under the age of 18.

He said that’s true particularly with the cost of healthcare and the lack of direct care workers in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

“When you put that into the context of rising housing costs and food costs for folks living on a fixed income, when that doesn’t keep pace with the overall reality, you see the need for programs like Meals on Wheels,” he said.

Coastline serves anyone over the age of 60 as well as the disabled, but on average they are between the ages of 70 and 80. He said there are seniors with mobility issues who have difficulty getting to the congregate meal sites where they can make social connections and a change was made to accommodate a social daycare program.

Boyer said Coastline serves between 3,000 and 4,000 meals a day.

He said New Bedford, where the community need is significant, has one of the highest rates of low-income minority elders.

“We need to make sure that our funding streams remain the same because even if we get a 5 to 10% increase, when the rate of folks that we're serving increases at a greater rate than the overall costs of food and gas and with employee payments and benefits, it just all adds up,” he said.

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The need for meal program reauthorization

The Older Americans Act, a federal law that provides funding and guidance for state and local services to assist older adults and created meals programs, is up for reauthorization this year, and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass, serves on the Reauthorization Committee.

Boyer and Coastline Elderly Services CEO Justin Lees recently went to a conference for a policy briefing. Boyer said even if they doubled their funding, they would still need help meeting those needs.

“Post-pandemic, we’re coming to find that the more money they give service providers that have preventive services like Meals on Wheels, the more that we’re able to effectively meet the need and prevent institutionalism,” he said.

Lees said in addition to bringing attention to the Meals on Wheels program, it’s a segway into additional services that Coastline can provide to help people age at home independently. He said they appreciate all the help from the councils on aging and state and federal funding.

“We also rely on contributions from donors and other supporters in the community,” he said.

Although Coastline has experienced a 45% increase in funding for its elderly nutrition program, there has also been a 59% increase in program expenses. The core issue is that funding growth continues to lag behind rising service costs.

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Serving up homemade meals

Recently Mayor Jon Mitchell, Rep. Tony Cabral, D-New Bedford, Rep. Chris Hendricks, D-New Bedford and Brian Rose with the Bristol County District Attorney's Office helped package the meals while Sen. Mark Montigny delivered them.

Mitchell said the Meals on Wheels program has made a big difference in many people’s lives because it’s so effective and popular, and besides the benefit of providing healthy meals to seniors, it’s about making connections with a friendly face.

“It’s also a way of connecting seniors in New Bedford who don’t have the opportunity to interact with friends and relatives to have that friendly face at the door,” he said. “Folks who deliver the meals across the region can make a huge difference in one’s day and be very important for someone’s mental health.”

Cabral said it has been rewarding to have the opportunity to see the smiles on the faces of the residents when they deliver their nutritious meals to them and recalled one particular visit on West Rodney French Boulevard.

“She was so happy to see us, and it wasn’t just about the meal, it was about the opportunity to interact and socialize with us,” he said.

He said the state funding for Meals on Wheels is very important and they are hoping for at least a slight increase in funding.

Coastline serves New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Acushnet, Marion, Mattapoisett, Rochester as well as Cuttyhunk through the Gosnold Council on Aging.

Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at kgallerani@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgallreporter. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Coastline Elderly Services seeks support for additional meals funding