This Catholic Charities sponsored Senior Center at 90-01 Rockaway Beach Boulevard that prepares hot daily meals for Rockaway seniors may soon be in jeopardy. Catholic Charities refused to comment on any of The Department for the Aging proposals until plans are finalized.As part of Mayor Bloomberg's "All Ages Project," 15,000 Meals on Wheels recipients, including hundreds in Rockaway, face a major overhaul to the program that could reduce their daily food deliveries to just two days a week.
Under the proposed plan, Meals on Wheels services will become regionalized under a set of vendors who will deliver frozen meals to select seniors twice a week, leaving them to heat up the meals themselves, rather than the present system, which has local people delivering hot meals to homebound seniors on a daily basis.
The Department for the Aging says the modernization is necessary to prepare for the growing senior population that is expected to rise 44 percent by the year 2030. Using the current system, the Department argues the agency would be overwhelmed and incapable of serving such a large number of seniors.
By 2030, there will be an estimated 1.35 million seniors residing in New York City. Chris Miller, spokesperson for The Department for the Aging, says that the program will open an array of options to seniors that weren't previously available.
"There is no loss of a meal for any senior," Miller says. "It is not a budget decision, it is to allow choices, expand our menu, and serve more seniors."
The local plan would be based on the agency's new program called, "Senior Options," which started as a pilot in the Bronx during 2004.
According to Miller, under the proposed plan, seniors would essentially be given the choice of hot daily delivered meals or twice a week delivery of frozen, ready to heat meals.
"We have a lot of seniors that have become frightened recently that they will only be getting frozen meals," he said. "They will have the choice based on an individual evaluation by their case manager."
"Our goal is not to save money, but rather to serve more seniors," Miller said.
Local politicians, who see an expanding base of senior voters and a large number of senior homes on the peninsula, are skeptical about the plan, its benefits and whether or not it's necessary to change a program that has worked so well in the past.
State Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer, who told The Wave that, "It's all about saving the money," contends that she will do everything in her power to delay this plan from going into effect. The proposal will be formally requested on March 31 for Mayor Bloomberg to review.
"The study done in the Bronx with this program showed that it didn't save any money," she said. "Don't fix something that isn't broken. This program has worked for a long time, there's no need to change anything."
The purpose of Meals on Wheels is to serve the frail elderly who cannot cook for themselves. Therefore, logic should follow that an individual who is frail, elderly and too weak to cook would not fair well on a frozen meal regimen.
Pheffer continues to say this change defies the entire purpose of the program.
"If they are capable to heat up their own home delivered meal that means they really don't need Meals on Wheels. It exceeds eligibility."
Another non-monetary component to the daily Meals on Wheels deliveries is the human element, according to the assemblywoman. The idea is more than just a meal, but rather the human contact and socialization that a homebound elder receives when the person comes to his or her door with the food.
"The human contact is an essential part of the process," Pheffer said. "These deliveries serve as a lifeline to seniors."
Pheffer added that there are times when a delivery person comes into a home and sees the elder unconscious, in very poor condition, or visibly not feeling well. They can then report back to a case manager who comes out to visit the senior and check up on him or her.
This element would be lost if regionalized vendors take over individual accounts and make visits only twice a week.
Pheffer believes regionalized vendors will also eliminate the diversity seen in various Meals on Wheels neighborhoods.
Currently there are several different Meals on Wheels options depending on the demographic makeup of a neighborhood. Meals include Kosher, Middle Eastern and other distinct foods that represent what the people of those particular neighborhoods prefer to eat.
"We haven't been shown how this helps frail and elderly people," Pheffer said. "They want to regionalize Meals on Wheels and I really don't know why, we would lose all the diversity associated with it."
City Councilman James Sanders, Jr. met with The Department for the Aging Commissioner Edwin Mendez- Santiago this week to discuss the "Senior Options" plan.
Sanders' preliminary thoughts were similar to those of Pheffer.
"These meals serve as lifelines to our seniors," he said. "They are not simply meals."
Sanders, however, was happy to hear about the increase in caseworkers throughout the city.
"More human contact and connection with the seniors is great, as long as it is done in a humane and neighborly way that is beneficial to the seniors," Sanders said.
Sanders continued to say that the commissioner assured him these will not be traditional frozen meals. Rather they will be what he described as "flash-freeze" meals.
A method that ensures all key nutrients and vitamins are preserved in the meal which still has a fresh taste when heated up.
"That remains to be seen," Sanders said in response. "Right now I am not sure if this is the best way to approach this program."
Sanders assured his constituents that he will remain on top of the issue and continue to monitor it.
"We need to protect the best interests of ourselves," he said. "Our seniors services are an important part of this community. We don't want anything forced upon us that isn't in our best interests."
