2. Dietitian Program Update
AAA Registered Dietitian/Healthy Aging Coordinator Shannon Gabriel shared the work
she has been doing since the last meeting. Nutrition Counseling: To date, I’ve worked
with 31 patients for a total of 48 counseling hours. These are all zoom or home visits.
75% home visit, 25% Zoom. Recent reasons for a referral for counseling over the past
two months include: Prediabetes, uncontrolled diabetes w/ fatigue and repeated ER
visits, (2) newly diagnosed diabetes, Parkinson’s medications causing chronic
constipation, recent hospitalization/weakness/weight loss/2G sodium diet, CKD/Kidney
Cancer/Fluid accumulation.
Senior Farmers’ Market Voucher Program – households receive $25 to spend on WI
grown fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Eligibility for this program is age 60+, Dane County
resident, and have to be at or below 185% of the federal poverty level. We (AAA Clerk,
Cindy and I) started off with 695 vouchers and just 1 week into the program, have
distributed 475 sets so far! There’s 220 sets left to distribute and I have no doubt that
we’ll be able to do this since we’ve mailed 845 applications so far. (Last year we had to
shred 156 sets of vouchers that were unused due to low interest/COVID).
On the back end of the farmers’ market program, remember I mentioned during the last
meeting that we had some areas of Dane County without any approved farmers’ markets
that accept these vouchers. This still remains to be the case in Waunakee. After several
requests, there’s been no interest there – sad because there’s one farmers’ market in
Waunakee that’s nice and close for many seniors. I plan to keep working on that.
Another missing area was Hilldale and I contacted that market to get them signed up and
they’re now an approved market. Another area was Oregon and in addition to the weekly
Tuesday afternoon farm market, which was already happening, Eugster’s Farm Market in
Stoughton – is an option. This is a great addition as they are a destination for many
people and are open daily 10-5pm.
Hy-Vee East Washington – They are no longer a senior dining site, as of early May. The
other two locations – Whitney Way and Fitchburg Hy-Vee still continue to be dining sites.
One major change that occurred due to Hy-Vee Corporate laying off many employees and
making many changes – their restaurants are no longer full-service, except for when
senior nutrition is there on Wednesdays. This change made us discontinue offering
breakfast, since they typically wouldn’t have these foods already prepped and waiting in
their hot bar. We are now open 11-1/1:30 and offering 4 lunch options to choose from.
Breakfast – I have a team of people – Taher Catering/Waunakee, Colonial Club,
DeForest Senior Center, and SSM Health – that are helping to develop a breakfast pilot.
This pilot helps us tackle one of the aging plan goals that focuses on improving a meal
recipient’s malnourished status. We’ll do this by offering 5 cold breakfasts and protein
drinks each week paired with nutrition counseling.
Malnutrition risk can be reduced by increasing protein and caloric intake in the diet. Two
Senior Nutrition Program meals will provide the state minimum requirement of 1350
calories and 38 grams of protein. Dane County nutrient analsysis indicates our two meals
and a protein drink will provide above the state minimum at an average of 1546 calories
and 66 grams of protein. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans states that sedentary
adults age 61+ need approximately 1600-2000 calories and a minimum of 40-50 grams of
protein per day. It’s recommended to have higher intakes of protein when malnourished,
to improve strength and prevent muscle loss.
To be eligible to participate in pilot (aiming for 50 adults):
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Already receiving 5 HDMs (lunches)
MST = At Risk (2 or more) (1 - have you recently lost weight without trying? 2 – have
you been eating poorly because of a decrease apetite?) 14+lb wt loss OR 2+lb wt loss &
poor appetite = at risk.
*
*
*
8+ Determine Score
If possible, Food Insecure – but not required.
Not lactose intolerant or dairy sensitive. Must be willing and able to drink the milk
