Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Louise F. Rogers, Chief, San Mateo County Health
Nina Rhee, Acting Director, Aging and Adult Services
Subject: Continuation of the Second Course Home Delivered Meals Program to Address Food Insecurity for Older Adults in San Mateo County
RECOMMENDATION:
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Adopt a resolution authorizing the Chief of San Mateo County Health or the Chief’s designee to execute amendments with current Older Americans Act program contractors to continue the Second Course home delivered meals program to address the ongoing nutritional needs of older adults and adults with disabilities in San Mateo County during or for the term of July 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024, in an amount not to exceed $2,100,000.
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BACKGROUND:
On April 24, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the launch of the Great Plates Delivered (GPD) program, a prepared meal delivery service. The GPD program helped seniors and other adults at high risk of COVID-19 stay home and healthy by delivering three nutritious meals daily to their homes. The GPD program, authorized and fully funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ended on July 9, 2021. As of June 6, 2021, San Mateo County had served 4,683 older adults with 2,600,000 meals through 84 local meal providers, at a total cost of $58,000,000 through the GPD program.
According to the Center on Budget Policy Priorities, located in Washington D.C., data from the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey indicated high rates of economic hardship and increased food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Without a nutrition program to replace GPD when it ended on July 9, 2021, an estimated 1,200 San Mateo County older adults would have had unmet nutritional needs.
To address this population of approximately 1,200 older adults with unmet nutritional needs, Aging and Adult Services (AAS) and the Office of Sustainability (OOS) started a new program, Second Course, on July 1, 2021, as a two-year pilot. The two-part program: 1) initiated a grocery delivery program in partnership with the Second Harvest Food Bank to serve food-insecure clients, and 2) expanded the County’s existing home-delivered meal program to serve clients who needed meals delivered to them. (OOS handled the grocery delivery program through a separate contract.) The post-GPD home-delivered meal services portion of Second Course received a total amount of $3,900,000 for FY21-22 and FY22-23. Home-delivered meal providers for Second Course were: Peninsula Volunteers Inc., Self Help for the Elderly, Senior Coastsiders, and Meals on Wheels San Francisco.
DISCUSSION:
By April 30, 2023, Second Course had served more home-delivered meal clients than expected, with 802 participants receiving 107,000 meals. AAS anticipates having $2,100,000 of the approved $3,900,000 still available for meals after June 30, 2023, when the original Second Course funding terminates. As a result, AAS is requesting this Board’s approval to continue the Second Course Program for a third fiscal year of FY23-24.
Program staff and providers are constantly evaluating the need for home-delivered meal services. Of the 802 clients served with Second Course home-delivered meals, 302 have been able to transition to other nutritional programs, and 500 continue to need Second Course services.
This agreement is coming to this Board late because it took time to gather the necessary data to provide this program update.
The resolution has been reviewed and approved by the County Attorney’s Office as to form, and all agreements will be approved as to form.
It is anticipated that 500 clients will be served by the continuation of the Second Course Program, and 90% of clients will respond that they are no longer food insecure.
PERFORMANCE MEASURE:
|
Measure |
FY 2022-23 Actual |
FY 2023-24 Estimated |
|
Number of clients served by the continuation of the Second Course Program |
802 clients |
500 clients |
|
Participants that respond they are no longer food insecure |
90% |
90% |
FISCAL IMPACT:
The funding term of these services will be July 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. The total amount of the agreements is not to exceed $2,100,000 for a 15-month term. Funding for these services will come from the American Rescue Plan’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. These services will be included in the Non-Departmental FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget in the amount of $2,100,000. There is no Net County Cost associated with the approval of this initiative.