Meals Evaluation Delayed

By HEATHER HADDON

The city is dragging its heels in initiating an independent evaluation of the Meals on Wheels pilot program launched in the Bronx a year ago. The city Department for the Aging (DFTA) has yet to begin the study, though it had promised to do so by now. The pilot completed its first year on Oct. 1 and is moving into its second cycle.

“We are still determining this,” said Christopher Miller, a DFTA spokesperson, about the promised evaluation. “We are finalizing the scope of work before we move ahead.”

Miller said the evaluation would begin later this fall, and that the results will be made public. He did not have information about what components of the pilot will be studied, nor who will conduct the research.

In the meantime, the pilot continues. Homebound seniors now receive frozen meals from two providers, instead of the previous 17, in batches twice a week. Those who elect to get hot food are brought reheated meals daily.

None of the providers cook the food themselves, as was the case previously, but simply dispense TV-style dinners made by ConAgra, a food processing giant, or kosher meals made by a Queens company. A taste test by the Norwood News last summer found them to be watery and barely edible.

The city continues to stand behind the pilot, called Senior Options. Forty-two percent of seniors elected to receive frozen meals twice a week this fall, which is similar to when the pilot started, according to Miller. “Senior Options offers greater meal choice and additional flexibility of meal times for our seniors,” he said in a statement.

Bronx officials have mostly backed the overhaul despite widespread opposition among seniors and their advocates when it was first unveiled. Council Member Joel Rivera, however, says DFTA is not being transparent with the program’s results. “Unfortunately, they have not been forthcoming with information,” Rivera said last week.

Rivera’s office contacted DFTA last summer to determine the number and status of client complaints. He says his request was never fulfilled. “We have no say in this process,” Rivera said.

If deemed successful by evaluators, the pilot can be renewed for up to six years and expand citywide, though the Norwood News reported last year that Brooklyn and Queens providers were adamantly opposed to expansion. DFTA was evasive about whether the pilot will actually go beyond the Bronx during this year’s budget negotiations.

“Why is it not being expanded?” asked Rivera, who thought the election last week might have something to do with it. “If it works … an election year would have been a great opportunity to show its success.”