COCOA helping seniors make ‘Healthy Choices’

On a cold November day inviting aroma’s wafted through the Prineville Soroptimist Senior Center. Not surprising, since it was the annual Thanksgiving congregate meal.

But the tempting smells did not just emit from the kitchen. At the other end of the center, Stephanie Russell, SNAP-Ed Coordinator with OSU Extension Service, was creating tasty and nutritious comfort food.

Seniors were invited to taste the healthy comfort food as part of the kick-off of Healthy Choices, the new nutrition education program sponsored by the Central Oregon Council on Aging (COCOA).

Rather than a lecture-style format, Healthy Choices developed an interactive taste-test presentation, using the theme of “Seasonings other than Salt.” It included a cooking demonstration, taste-testing of a low-sodium turkey cranberry stew seasoned with bay leaf and thyme and a crustless pumpkin pie seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg.

More than 100 seniors enjoyed a taste test, provided feedback, picked up copies of the recipes along with low-sodium diet handouts, and completed a brief survey.

COCOA recognized that seniors who experience hunger or malnutrition are at risk for serious health problems.

Malnutrition can be life threatening by increasing the risk for stroke, prolonging recovery from illness, extending hospital stays, limiting the effects of prescription drugs, decreasing resistance to infection, and even increasing the occurrence of depression and isolation.

With the aging of baby boomers, people living longer, and the eldest becoming frailer, requests for meal services and nutrition information are significantly increasing. COCOA is taking a pro-active approach to serving the increased demand, including in the area of nutrition education.

COCOA oversees the Meals on Wheels program, which provides nutritionally balanced meals to home-bound seniors, five to seven days a week, delivered by a core of dedicated volunteers who also check on the senior’s well-being and provide companionship.

Additionally, COCOA supports a congregate meal program offering a hot meal three to five times a week at senior centers throughout the region. These meals meet or exceed recommendations for dietary allowances in a congregate setting. Without Meals on Wheels and/or congregate dining, many Central Oregon seniors would be unable to meet their minimum nutritional needs.

Although Meals on Wheels and congregate dining are well established, serving upwards of 5,000 Central Oregon seniors, the nutrition education piece has not historically been well defined.

To provide seniors with a strong foundation in nutrition to meet the goals of wise food choices, disease prevention, and overall better health, COCOA needed to do more than the short-term fix of a single hot meal.

With a grant funded by Walmart, Healthy Choices was established, including adding a registered dietitian to the staff.

The overarching goal of Healthy Choices is to build COCOA’s capacity to provide ongoing nutrition education to its Meals on Wheels and congregate dining clients. An ancillary goal is to ensure the food safety and high nutritional value of meals served to clients.

Program objectives are to provide nutrition education at congregate meal sites; assist meal site staff with food selection and safety; develop a book of approved menus for meal sites; improve distribution of printed nutrition educational materials to seniors; provide individual nutritional advising to clients in their own homes; and perhaps most importantly, train the case managers in nutrition advising, thereby building the capacity of the organization to offer nutritional services on a long-term basis.

COCOA is a private nonprofit organization and the designated Area Agency on Aging (AAA) responsible for providing services to meet the needs of senior citizens in the tri-county area of Central Oregon. COCOA services help seniors to live independently in their own homes for as long as possible, aging with dignity and respect.