O6 Meals on Wings: A Food Recovery Meal Program to Improve the Nutritional Health and Well-Being of Seniors

For the older adult, maintenance of good nutritional health is essential to functioning, the prevention or management of chronic disease, and quality of life. Compounding this problem is the increasing numbers of seniors that are food insecure. Studies show approximately half of community-dwelling elders are at nutrition risk which leads to increased risk for additional health problems, functional decline, reduced quality of life and hospitalization. The Meals on Wings program offers a solution for some of those seniors in need by recovering unused food that would normally be wasted from area hospitals and repackaging it into healthful meals. The meals are delivered to home-bound seniors using student volunteers to recover food, prepare the meals and deliver to the seniors. This program not only fights hunger in the community but also helps decrease food waste.Investigate the impact of a food recovery and meal delivery program on the nutritional health, social well-being, and isolation of home-bound seniors. Evaluate the impact of volunteering on student volunteers' empathy and perception of social responsibility.This study utilizes a within-group, pretest-posttest design. There are two study groups: home-bound seniors on the waitlist for Meals on Wheels and students enrolled at the University of North Florida.Seniors’ nutritional health and social well-being are measured using a pre-post methodology. Surveys are given at enrollment, three months, and six months, and include the following measures: MNA-SF, 24-hour food recall, USDA 6-Item Food Security Survey, WHO-5 Well-Being Index, and the 3-Item Loneliness Scale. Student volunteers are surveyed at program start and at 90 days using the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire-Public Service Motivation Scale.After six months, the program has: delivered 2,048 meals; seen significant improvements in senior's nutritional health parameters; and seen a significant improvement in students' public service motivation.Receiving home-delivered meals for a short duration significantly improves recipients' nutritional health and well-being, improves student public service motivation, and reduces food waste.None.