Senior Nutrition
One of our greatest needs continues to be financial sup-
port for our HDM Program. The situations of the seniors
that rely on Neighborhood Alliance’s home delivered meals
are varied but all share in the basic need for good nutrition.
This daily home delivered balanced meal serves as the
primary source of nutrition for their day. Recipients who are
“at-risk nutritionally” can further heal, maintain and thrive
through participation in this program. Whether faced with
financial hardship, chronic health issues, a lack of trans-
portation, limited or no family support, physical or mental
weaknesses, an inability to shop and cook for themselves,
or for reasons of personal safety, many senior adults fall
into a myriad of categories which qualify them for a home
delivered meal program. Lack of proper nutrition can affect
mental and memory faculties, slow body recovery, and
reduce absorption of medications while further complicating
the personal health situation.
Photo Credit: The Morning Journal
Thanks for Giving
On Wednesday November 23 2016,
Neighborhood Alliance brought together
volunteers to prepare a special holiday meals
for home-bound seniors in Lorain County.
Concerned that our homebound senior clients
would be alone and without a warm traditional
Thanksgiving meal, Community West Founda-
tion offered to generously sponsor the cost of
the 2016 Senior Nutrition Holiday meals for the
third year in a row.
Physical benefits aside, this program also provides psycho-
logical benefits to the recipient. For many who are isolated
within their community by disability or lack of family sup-
port, the Neighborhood Alliance staff driver delivering the
daily meals may be the only person that the senior has any
consistent contact with. The exchange, though brief, often
may be all that is necessary for the elder to feel like some-
one who knows them by name truly cares about them, while
expressing interest in their welfare and the news of the day.
Situations have occurred where that contact has meant a
significant difference for the participant. When changes in
their condition arise or a client presents a full-blown emer-
gency situation, a driver’s arrival can be life-changing or
even life-saving. This daily interaction, a ‘hello’ and ‘welfare
check,’ further allows us to alert next of kin to the aid their
elder requires when in crisis.
Neighborhood Alliance’s Senior Nutrition program has been
a daily stabilizing force for seniors in Lorain County since
1967. The program provided for 56,561 meals
to be delivered. Additional funding received for holiday
meals by Community West Foundation in 2016 allowed
Neighborhood Alliance to provide over 600 in total
Thanksgiving and Christmas home delivered meals to some
of the frailest elders in the community.