Committee Agenda Date iSeptember 21,2005

County of Santa Clara
Social Services Agency
Department of Aging and Adult Services Programs
Senior Nutrition Program

CSFCSSA03 092105

Prepared by: Michael Bobadilla
Management Analyst

Reviewed by: Betty Malks
Director Aging and Adult
Services
DATE:

September 21, 2005

TO:

Supervisor James T. Beall, Jr., Chairperson
Supervisor Don Gage, Vice-Chairperson
Children, Seniors & Families Committee

FROM:

Will Lightbourne
Agency Director, Social Services Agency

SUBJECT: Report Back and Update on the Senior Nutrition Program

RECOMIVIENDED ACTION

Accept status report from the Department of Aging and Adult Seiwices on the Senior Nutrition
Program.

Board of Supervisors: Donald F. Gage, Blanca Alvarado, Pete McHugh, Jim Beall. Liz Kniss
County Executive: Peter Kutras Jr.
1

Committee Agenda Date ;September 21,2005

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

None . This report provides an update on the Senior Nutrition Program.
CONTRACT HISTORY

Not Applicable.
REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION

On May 10, 2005, the Children, Seniors, and Families Committee(CSFC) accepted the report
update on the establishment of a Senior Nutrition Planning Council. At that time a revised
schedule was presented that included convening preliminary discussions between the
Department of Aging and Adult Services(DAAS)and Council on Aging Silicon Valley

(COA)prior to re-scheduling a Senior Nutrition Planning Council meeting. These discussions
would also determine if creation of the council would be the appropriate method to increase

service to areas of the County where there is a disparity between the number of senior meals
being served and the number of low income seniors in those areas. This report presents an
outline of progress to date.

A joint meeting between the Department of Aging and Adult Services(DAAS), Senior
Nutrition Program (SNP), and Council on Aging Silicon Valley was held on May 04, 2005. At
that meeting COA committed to providing data on the 60+ population by city that could be
used in a State funding formula to allocate revenue sharing by city with a minimum County
allocation. This data was to be provided to COA by California Department of Aging(CDA)

using Census 2000 results. The CDA data would be applied in the State Funding formula by
COA to create and justify a shared funding proposal for the Senior Nutrition Program that
could be presented to cities. The results would be provided to SNP to analyze the practicality
of using the formula to address underserved areas of the County and to increase revenue
sharing from cities. We have not received the CDA data compilation as of September 7, 2005.
The Planning Department is also preparing poverty level data at the census

bloclc/neighborhood level for all Supervisorial Districts on family and senior services that is
expected to be provided to the Board of Supervisors in September. The census block data was
requested in a referral by the Board of Supervisors to County Administration at the June 21,

Board of Supervisors: Donald F. Oage, Blanca .Alvarado, Pete McHugh, Jim Beall, Liz Kniss
County Executive: Peter Kutras Jr.
2

Committee Agenda Date :Septernber 21,2005

2005 Board of Supervisors meeting. SNP has been in contact with the Planning Department to
see if the data that is being compiled could be analyzed with the COA results when both
reports are available and incorporate any applicable data.

Although the information from COA has been delayed until CDA provides the requested data
to COA,the Senior Nutrition Program has continued to pursue additional avenues to promote
increased usage of services throughout the County and to bring awareness of the Senior
Nutrition services available to seniors.

Outreach Efforts:

SNP continues to outreach in the community through the use of media advertisements,
nutrition education and by researching and coordinating these efforts with other community

based senior service programs. Senior Nutrition flyers and posters are also distributed
annually to hospital discharge planners, community libraries, and doctors' medical facilities.

Recent County-wide efforts include Senior Nutrition congregate and home-delivered meals
mailers to food stamp households with members over the age of 60 in Spring and additional
mailers to hospital discharge planners at the beginning of July. The July mailers coincided
with a media placement for the Meals on Wheels Program in the San Jose Mercury News.
These efforts are in addition to year-round nutrition outreach events and presentations
conducted at senior centers, health fairs, and adult resource fairs. Twenty-one Senior
Nutrition Outreach events were conducted in FY 04-05.

Currently, the Senior Nutrition Program is exploring the feasibility of setting up an online
donation link to solicit contributions and will increase the options available to contributors

who wish to directly support the Meals on Wheels Program by their donations. The creation of
a link is actively being pursued by SNP pending legal and technological details currently
being researched by County Counsel and County Information Systems. The Council on Aging
has initially recommended that the online donation link be created separately by the County in
order for the County to be able to track contributions directly to the Meals on Wheels
Program. The Meals on Wheels Program recently received a donation from the regional

chapter of the National Corvette Society, in part, due to the internet web site presence of the
Senior Nutrition Program that drew attention to the homebound seniors that the Meals on

Board of Supervisors; Donald F. Gage, Blanca Alvarado, Pete McHugh, Jim Beall, Liz Kniss
County Executive: Peter Kutras Jr.
3

Committee Agenda Date :September 21,2005

Wheels Program serves.

SNP is also partnering with COA to participate in a nation-wide "March for Wheels"
Campaign sponsored annually by the Meals on Wheels Association of America(MOWAA)
that calls attention the problem of senior hunger in America. During the month of March
2006, Meals on Wheels programs from around the nation will ask their local mayors to
distribute home-delivered meals in a special "Mayors for Wheels" promotion of the March
for Meals campaign. Invitations will be mailed to our city mayors to request their
participation.

SNP will also be participating in the county-wide Food Safety Net committee comprised of
community based organizations in a coordinated effort to identify food resource gaps in
service and highlight the Congregate and Meals on Wheels Programs as additional food
resources for seniors in need.

SNP is exploring how other non-county food programs contribute to available senior support
services. Other community-based organizations such as Second Harvest Food Bank or
faith-based organizations assist in providing food to seniors independently or with minimal
County assistance.

In collaboration with Second Harvest Food Bank, the Senior Nutrition Program is continuing

to accrue brown bag data for the Supervisorial Districts and is scheduling outreach at 54
brown bag distribution centers located throughout Santa Clara County. Non-county senior
meal center locations continue to be identified as additional food resources for seniors in their

respective Supervisorial Districts.

An initial analysis of additional non-county senior food support services derived results for
District 4 and identified an average of 1275 brown bag program participants(23% of the
County total) in District 4. The following 5 non-county senior nutrition sites were also
identified as providing over 54,000 additional senior meals in this area:
• Cypress Senior Nutrition 403 Cypress Ave, San Jose 95117
• Kirk Senior Nutrition, 1601 Foxworthy Ave, San Jose, 95118

(the above sites are funded by City of San Jose)

Board of Supervisors; Donald F. Gage, Blanca Alvarado, Pete McHugh,Jim Beall, Liz Kniss
County Executive: Peter Kutras Jr.
4

Committee Agenda Date iSeptember 21, 2005

• Billy de Frank Gay & Lesbian Senior Nutrition, 938 The Alameda, San Jose 95128
(funded by San Jose Healthy Neighborhood Venture Funds)
• Alzheimer's Activity Center, 2380 Enborg Lane, San Jose 95128
• Live Oak Adult Day Services 1147 Minnesota Ave, San Jose 95128
Additional brown bag and non-county resources are being compiled for the remaining
Supervisorial Districts to complete the County-wide analysis.

As part of the identification and location process of other food resources, SNP identified three
hundred twenty-seven (327) senior subsidized housing centers or apartment complexes to
determine the extent of meal services within these sites. These sites are distributed throughout
the County as follows:
• District 1-65 centers
• District 2-91 centers
• District 3-47 centers

• District 4-76 centers
• District 5-48 centers

SNP has made telephone inquiries and preliminary results indicate that only a portion of these
complexes offer full or partial meal services to residents. These centers will be targeted for
future nutrition outreach presentations.

While the data is being formulated by COA,the Senior Nutrition Program continues to
promote and seek additional sources of revenue for congregate and home-delivered meals
through traditional contract negotiations with nutrition contractors and through a renewed
SBC Foundation grant application.
Results:

Prior efforts in these areas have resulted in increased revenue from the the City of Santa Clara

for the congregate meals program and a donation to Meals on Wheels from SBC corporation.
SNP has recently received an inquiry in August about a Winter holiday donation to the Meals
on Wheels Program from an automobile dealers association that would possibly donate to help
offset the increasing price of gasoline that is required to deliver senior meals. A Spring media
ad placement for Meals on Wheels in the local Campbell Times newspaper resulted in 13 new

Board of Supervisors: Donald F. Gage, Blanca Alvarado, Pete McHugh,Jim Beall, Liz Kniss
County Executive: Peter Kutras Jr.
5

Committee Agenda Date iSeptember 21,2005

additional Meals on Wheels Campbell participants as a result of this advertisement.

Continued community outreach and Board of Supervisor support of the Senior Nutrition
Program has sustained the annual level of 1.1 combined congregate and home-delivered
meals over the past 2 years. The Meals on Wheels participation level increased from 1490
unduplicated program participants in FY 03/04 to 1673 participants in FY 04/05, an 8.14%
increase in program participants. As a result of maintaining and increasing the level of service
over this period the Senior Nutrition Program in FY 04/05 received $811,134 in United States
Department of Agriculture Nutrition Services Incentive Program (NSIP)reimbursements, a
29% increase over FY 03/04, effectively reducing the County general fund share of senior
nutrition expenditures from 46% in FY 03/04 to 42% in FY 04/05.

The program will continue to campaign independently and with other community based
organizations to maximize the awareness of the Senior Nutrition Program and will continue to
seek additional sources of revenue to the meal programs. Once COA has presented its

proposed funding scenario and the results analyzed, the Senior Nutrition Program will present
these findings and how they will impact future planning efforts of the Senior Nutrition
Program.

CONSEQUENCES OF NEGATIVE ACTION

Negative action will result in not accepting the status report of the Senior Nutrition Program.
STEPS EOTT.OWING APPROVAL

The Clerk of the Board will follow the usual steps for a report of this type.

Board of Supervisors: Donald F. Gage, Blanca Alvarado, Pete McHugh, Jim Beall, Liz Kniss
County Executive: Peter Kutras Jr.
6