A nutritious meal is like the heart of welfare services in any successful nation. To fulfill that dream many agencies induce their program through low or subsidized prices. But here is a twist, the one size fits all doesn’t apply to the meal program. The programs should be customized to the targeted communities before planning and implementing the system. One such successful nationwide program is Meals on Wheels America.
Meals on Wheels America is a program that offers regular meals to seniors whose mobility makes it impossible for them to leave the house to get food. It is made up of a network of over 5,000 individually owned groups. Meals on Wheels volunteers not only bring nutritious food on a daily basis, but they also serve as a safety check.
Some local chapters, such as the one in Austin, Texas, offer a unique “Veteran Services Program” to assist veterans in understanding and navigating the VA’s and other government’s benefits and resources. They provide the service to folks who have difficulty getting around. They serve in gathering areas such as senior centers and community facilities for individuals who are still able to venture out into their neighborhoods.
The service for the elderly for sure is a concern, children and low-income neighborhoods also request attention. Many NPOs look forward to serving low-income neighbors with uncompromised nutrition standards and offering variety. While children are offered specialized meal programs in hand with their education, nurturing them physically and mentally.
Schools are an excellent resource for children whose families are struggling to make ends meet. Food banks and local schools collaborate to ensure that children have access to free or low-cost meals and consumables that they may share with their families. When children eat well, they have the energy and concentration they require to learn and grow. Many organizations assist children in feeding themselves before, during, and after school, as well as during the summer and school breaks.
Having said the importance of meal programs, let’s state the challenges incurred in the path. Not many communities access the program due to lack of awareness or their location being remote to the service area. At times it’s also possible that the transportation to provide meals to these communities is either unavailable or too expensive for families. This hampers the inclusivity of social and societal well-being. As a result millions of people; Elderly, children, and low-income families remain hungry throughout the year, helpless and vulnerable.
This clearly states the need for efficient and reliable meal provision and transportation program that is accustomed to each of these groups’ bodily necessaries. There are a few kind-hearted organizations already working in the field but there is a lot higher demand. Few sponsors employ trucks to carry and serve meals directly at apartment complexes, parks, and other sites where families spend their days to answer this problem. Mobile programs offer a ‘hyper local’ food delivery strategy that could be especially useful in rural or suburban areas where distance and a lack of public transit are major obstacles to access. Post-Pandemic, many borderline families got pushed into vulnerability and seek assistance.
Where to start?
We have made a board program starter guide for those companies or local authorities who which to take a step, tackle the American Hunger War. This includes planning, analyzing the community needs, aligning the organizational capacity to choose a service model for meal transport beginners. This is an assorted guidebook with guidelines, recommendations, and best practices.
The steps are a list of questions that make us draw a clearer vision of our community to be served and the possible support from the organization. Through answering questions and following the direction, one can identify the level of demand and organizational ability to successfully implement the appropriate service model for those who are just getting started with meal transport or examining chances to improve an existing program.
A spark to launch a customized meal delivery service
Overview and Assessment of Needs: Does meal transport fit in your neighborhood?
You may decide that a “conventional” meals program with set venues will serve the community just as effectively at a lesser cost, based on an assessment of community needs, organizational capability, and financial viability. Alternatively, you might find that, while a meals transport program might be more effective at reaching individuals with meals, your organisation lacks the capacity or funding to establish one. However, if a preliminary investigation (Reco survey) finds that a meals transport is both necessary and practicable, the next step is to devise a strategy for implementing it.
Code of Federal Regulations formulates a set of 48 requirements under 5 categories which have to be regularly updated to establish and maintain the service officially.
Planning and Implementation
Once you’ve decided that meal transport is the best fit for your program, you’ll need to figure out what resources and community partners you’ll need to make it work. You’ll also need to dig into the details of what makes each component workable and create an implementation strategy that takes into account restrictions, operational costs, food safety, labor, transportation, and outreach.
As you start planning your meal transport program, you’ll have a lot of decisions to make about where to serve meals and what resources you’ll need to make it a success. In some circumstances, you may need to rely on local community partners to supply resources that your organisation would otherwise be unable to obtain. You have to figure out what additional resources and community partners you’ll need to keep your program going, how to communicate partnerships, and a study to choose site locations for areas of need and potential service. Please keep in mind that, while these activities are listed individually for planning purposes, they frequently occur in tandem and reinforce each other.
Meal Service Logistics and Best Practices
This is intended to assist meal program sponsors in developing and implementing a successful delivery and service solution in their areas. The following advice assumes that a thorough feasibility analysis of meal transport programming has already been completed, as well as location selection and community partnership initiatives.
Whether you operate it internally or outsource it, you’ll need to meet the demands for hot and cold meals. Choices of vehicle and route, accompanying service provisions, and personnel management.
The Hunger Calculation — Meals Estimate
The Meals Calculator assists service providers in determining how many meals will be provided and/or how much funds will be required to conduct the meals program. The calculator should take into account critical expenses and benchmark data gathered from interviews with sponsors, partners, and vendors. For sponsors who are just started or looking to improve or extend an existing program, they should also consider vehicular capacity and maintenance.
Meal transport success stories
Take a look at the success stories below and be inspired by three different transport models that were meticulously created to satisfy the requirements of kids and families. Each short story will give you new ideas and help you think strategically about designing a successful meal transport program, from real-time food tracking for veterans to electronic voucher cards, each story portrays that meal transport is more than just providing a parcel at door.
#1 Chelsea
Over 2100 veterans in Chelsea, Massachusetts have benefited from seven 7 months of innovative food delivery services. Each week, about 80–100 individual meal deliveries were made, which not only provided emergency food and nutrition but also allowed for non-intrusive connection and checking on our Veterans. The team has also handled the responsibilities of managing the emergency food delivery system for CoVID affected families. Residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 or are quarantined are eligible for a box of healthy fruits, vegetables, and other items.
Drivers pick up packed food boxes from a central location (seen) and deliver them to families according to a route specified on their Qryde developed mobile app. As the vehicle approaches the drop-off location, the recipient receives an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and SMS.
QRyde is also used to determine the number of boxes that should be sent based on the family’s size. The Automation helped them to serve demand within reduced vehicular operation simultaneously cutting the city’s carbon footprint.
#2 Real Services
Another renowned member of the Meals on Wheels program is REAL Services based in South Bend, IN. They dedicatedly work towards providing meals to low-income neighbors throughout the week. Besides providing nutrition self-sufficiency, education, and safety programs to 30,000 residents in northern Indiana each year, they also help seniors meet their medical appointments. The scheduling and automation are done through Qryde to meet the industrial level efficiency standards.
#3 CICOA
CICOA Aging & In-Home Solutions’ Meals & More service provides delectable, nutritionally balanced meals that are essential for good health and good quality of life. The organization, understanding the behavioral patterns of the elderly provided them with a quick and easy-to-use meal card that can be used and reused for all meals at selective restaurants. To make the data administration simpler, the voucher system is operated through cloud technology. CICOA provides roughly 8,500 nutritionally balanced meals to seniors in central Indiana each month using an electronic meal accounting system based on QRyde technology. Since the partnership, CICOA has been able to efficiently manage the accounting of over 1,200 meals for clients at 35 neighborhood meal sites and cooperating hospitals.
#4 MIDS Transportation Inc.
MIDS Transportation Inc., the agency contracted by Regional Development Centers to conduct DHS travels within its area, maintains a fully coordinated transportation system with a mixed fleet of DOT 5311 trucks and 15 passenger vans, providing over 35,000 trips and 3,600 home-delivered meals monthly in the twenty-four counties it serves.
Their technological advancement developed by Qryde optimized scheduling, simple and precise invoicing, and reporting. Because it has contracts with DCH, DHS, and GDOT, Transportation Inc. is a transportation sector leader. This allows it to fully coordinate and service the areas in which it works.
Thinking Further
There are several things to be taken care of in general during meal transportation.
Keeping the meals Fresh and serving right
- Setting the right temperature
- Following the nutrition standards
- Providing adequate quantity for the families
Transporting it right
- Planning the target households
- Saving longer journey for meal deliveries
Making user to provider communication easy
- Checking other necessary supplies to the consumer (Medicine and groceries)
- Communicating the food allergies and necessary customizations
Real-time tracking and costing
- Minimal instruction and maximized automation for the delivery tenure
- Electronic invoice and enabled customization
- Meal tracking through mobiles
During Pandemic
- Avoiding contact
- Disinfected vehicles and infection-free delivery
Qryde is a technical expert and helped their clients upgrade into a stress-free efficient transportation system through their technology. In case of further details please feel free to contact info@qryde.com
