In the face of rising food costs that have left many Americans, including some of the country’s most vulnerable populations, sucked into the whirlpool of food insecurity, the Rockland County Office of the Aging has partnered with Meals on Wheels Rockland to launch a new portable meal program to get hot meals on the tables of Rockland seniors.
Combined, the Office of the Aging and Meals on Wheels, are bringing 100 years of experience to the task — each is celebrating their 50th Anniversary of service in 2025. The collaboration makes sense, perhaps now more than ever in recent memory, aside from the sharp rise in need during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The senior community is the fastest-growing segment [of food insecure people] in the country at this point,” said Meals on Wheels Rockland President and CEO Kevin Hardy. “We can obviously see it in Rockland County, and the demand is not getting less; it’s increasing. We were doing somewhere around 400 meals before COVID-19. During COVID-19, we were doing about 1500. Once the pandemic was over, it kind of settled down to about 1000.”
Since June, the portable meal program has provided five free nutritious meals a week to eligible seniors in underserved communities. All the meals are made in house, Hardy says, and each meal fulfills one-third of the recommended dietary intake for older adults set by New York State.
Karen Ziemak, a receipt of the program, says she likes the convenience the portable meals give her and enjoys the variety of the different foods.
“[The program] benefits me because I really don’t have to cook and if I eat [the meals] and it fills me up then I’m good for the whole day,” said Ziemak.
The program was originally launched at three distribution sites across the county: the Martin Luther King Multi-Purpose Center in Spring Valley, Central Presbyterian Church in Haverstraw, and Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Nyack.
The locations of these distribution sites coincide with statistics provided by the county, revealing Spring Valley, Haverstraw, and Nyack to have the highest rates of food insecurity in the county.
According to officials and advocates, there is a confluence of factors contributing to the rise in food insecurity in these and other locations throughout the country, including higher poverty rates, lower median incomes, larger populations of seniors and immigrants, limited access to affordable grocery stores, and transportation barriers that make it difficult to reach food pantries or supermarkets.
According to the office of aging, more than 40,000 adults in Rockland County report experiencing food insecurity.
For seniors who struggle to access reliable transportation or have mobility issues, the county also partners with Meals on Wheels to provide home delivery meals. But Mr. Hardy says the portable meal program helps to further fill in gaps for seniors who consistently need hot meals during the week but can’t be at home during meal deliveries times.
County Executive Ed Day praised the Office of the Aging for the new program and says it’s another opportunity to reach seniors in need.
“Food-insecure older residents now have another reliable way to access healthy meals in their communities. I encourage any older residents in need to reach out.” Day said.
To be eligible for the program, participants must be 60 years or older, reside in Rockland County, and complete a registration form to receive meals. Seniors interested in the program can contact the RCOA or register at a partnering distribution site.
The program is possible due to funding from grants provided by the New York State Office for the Aging, the Administration on Aging, and the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The Office of the Aging plans to expand its efforts in fighting food insecurity and says the program is already expanding to additional distribution sites throughout the county.
Eventually, the new sites will include Homes for Heroes in Tappan, Rockland County Veterans Service Agency in New City, Esther Gitlow Towers in Suffern, The Yvette & Louis Tekel Senior Residence in Suffern, and Upper Room House of Worship in Spring Valley.
As the program continues to grow, recipients like Elizabeth Gloebma say they are grateful, but hope to see slight improvements to the program in future, like adding nutritional fact labels to each meal.
“If you have to limit your salt intake,” said Gloebma, “it doesn’t let you know how much salt is in the meals and a lot of people older like me, you have to watch that.”
In July, the Office of Aging began to distribute portable meals at five MOWR-operated, RCOA-funded Senior Activity Centers across the county.
The Office of Aging Director Cheryl Dean Ward says she is grateful for the strong partnership with Meals on Wheels Rockland and is proud of what the portable meal program has accomplished.
“By showing up in neighborhoods that need us most,” Ward says, “we’re creating new opportunities to connect with residents and ensure no one in Rockland County goes without a nutritious meal.”
