Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) in Oregon and nationally have been exploring ways of working with local restaurants or other food service establishments such as hospitals, schools, department of corrections, or grocery stores to provide meals that meet local needs as well as state and Older Americans Act (OAA) requirements. Some of the models include:
- A restaurant or other food service establishments serves as the meal site instead of a more traditional site such as a senior or community center.
- Vouchers are provided by the AAA to enable participants to redeem vouchers for meals in one or more restaurants or other food service establishments.
- AAA or nutrition sites purchase food from one or more restaurants, with the restaurant food served at an existing traditional meal site.
Benefits to these models include ability to meet food and dining preferences of a more diverse population, or to offer meal programs in rural areas where there may not be options for traditional meal sites. However, these alternative models also raise potential challenges that AAAs must address in order to meet OAA expectations for meal content, donations, data collection, socialization opportunities, and links to other aging services. Costs may also be higher than in traditional settings, and traditional approaches to fundraising for meal programs may need to be addressed differently.
AAAs and the SUA worked together to develop the following resources and guidelines to assist AAAs in exploring options for providing meals through these non-traditional approaches.