Nutrition and wellness is an important focus in healthcare today. An important element of improving older adults’ health is to promote nutrition education and their participation in wellness activities, therefore, access to fresh, nutritious, healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity are key components of healthy living in a community. However, we need to ensure these opportunities and resources are available to everyone. Sometimes older adults are living in poverty or do not have access to fresh, nutritious food. To create a more just society, our communities need to adjust our policies and systems to include all of us, regardless of age or socioeconomic status. By offering congregate meals at selected settings, such as senior centers/centers for active adults or adult day care facilities, nutritionally balanced meals are provided and as participants we can be more engaged with one another and our community. Older adults given the opportunity to obtain nutrition information and accessible exercise and wellness programs that focus on changing health behaviors can lower the risk of disease and disability, live independently longer and improve health status and overall quality of life. (Frameworks Institute, 2017)
**In order to maximize your communication and productivity with your audience, please reference the best practices created by The Frameworks Institute on the Characteristics main page.
Data to inform the discussion around this characteristic.
- Rates of food insecurity among older adults (from the AARP Food Insecurity Among Older Adults report, 2015)
- Presence of home- and community-based services (e.g. meals-on-wheels) (potential data source: Area Agency on Aging)
- Presence of preventive programs (e.g., immunization; falls prevention) (potential data source: Area Agency on Aging)
- **For other ideas, direct participants toward the Livable Community Indicators report, page 19, (March, 2013)
Activities to help contextualize this characteristic.
- Healthy Food Access, By the Numbers: Ask participants to use several publicly available data sources to inform their thinking around healthy food access in the community. This might include:
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- The USDA Food Desert Locator
- County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (look at the “Healthy Food Access” indicator)
- Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (see several health indicators, including “Access to Fruits and Vegetables” and “Average Fruits and Veggies Per Day”)
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- Game about kitchen hygiene and safety
Success Stories from local communities.
- Waushara County received a grant support two meal options at each meal at senior meal sites. They also provide important educational opportunities during meals:
- StrongWomen Program improves the health of older adults across the state.
- FRESH meals in Sheboygan Co, provides Meals on Wheels including fresh produce from garden.
- Healthier Together-Pierce County & St. Croix County
- Communities Putting Prevention to Work in La Crosse County
- Menominee Tribe Garden Project FoodWIse program making a difference.
*Please pay attention to how communities name future programs. Will the name promote enthusiasm from older adults or will stigmatizing language inhibit the desire to attend or participate?
Resources and other ideas for next steps.
Resources and further reading:
- Wisconsin’s Farm Fresh Atlas, a road map to Healthy Eating
- Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (Senior FMNP) list of contacts by county
- Farmers’ Markets & CSA Farms – search by community
- MyPlate for Older Adults
- Older Adults Nutrition Resource List from USDA Food and Nutrition Information Center (Sept. 2013)
- 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP)
Ideas for next steps:
- Food Bank Reaching More Older Adults In Need With Mobile Food Pantries – Northern Wisconsin (WPR, Jan., 2017)
- The Healthy Aging in Action report has numerous suggestions for supporting healthy aging in our communities.
- Check Out Healthy is a toolkit for addressing food environment within and surrounding food stores in Wisconsin communities.
- Got Access? is a guide for improving fruit & vegetable access in Wisconsin communities (June, 2012).
- Programming ideas abound!
- Cancer Clear & Simple (CC&S) is a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Extension and University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center. CC&S materials incorporate health literacy principles and are designed to build participant knowledge and improve health-related decision-making.
- Eat Smart, Live Strong is a kit designed to encourage older adults to adopt healthier habits (March, 2013).
- Meal Planning and Budgeting:
- Healthy Eating Planner. Healthy Eating Planner tool can help assess food and activity choices, set goals and make plans for improvement.
- Eat Right When Money’s Tight Tips on stretching food dollars by planning ahead, budgeting and making smart food choices.
- Spend Smart Eat Smart (from Iowa State Extension)
- Cooking for One or Two People
- Healthy Retail Project – is an effort to work with community grocers and convenience stores to help them highlight what healthy food options they have available to their customers. The program assists participating grocers to make healthy foods more accessible, attractive and easy to use by looking at product placement, signage, recipe cards, advertising and marketing. By making a few changes in displays, orientation and providing nutrition education the Healthy Retail Project can promote healthier food options and give these food items a chance to shine. End result, customers will often make healthier choices when grocery shopping.
- Food safety videos for older adults.
- FRIDGE = Food Related Intergenerational Discussion Group Experiences
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