Meals on Wheels: Supporting Health in Older Adults

Presenter: Perla Escolero-Contreras, Public Health Science, Global Public Health Scholars

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I worked at Meals on Wheels at the College Park location. Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit organization that helps the elderly who can not easily make their own meals and who deal with health issues. During my time at Meals on Wheels. I worked with a team of volunteers. We would do an assembly line and make and pack healthy meals. Each meal was specific to the individual's needs. For example, diabetics had different meals than those who weren't diabetics. I also helped with quality control, making sure each meal was going to the correct person. I learned a lot from this experience, for example, how programs like this can have a bigger effect than just providing food. It can also aid in other problems, for example, the delivery contact helps those elderly who may feel lonely. This helped improve their mental health and made them feel less lonely. It is important for the elderly to have meals that fit their health needs, especially when they have long-term medical conditions. Meals on Wheels is a great example of how health care and community service can work together. It helps people stay healthy. This experience made me interested in how programs like this could be used in other places to fight hunger and health problems. In the end, working with Meals on Wheels taught me how local efforts can make a big difference in people’s lives.