Meals On Wheels Essay

I am writing regarding the Meals on Wheels, which is a program responsible for delivering meals to the elderly American population. Currently, this program attends 2.5 million seniors every year across United States. Besides the delivery of a nutritious meals door to door, the volunteer program perform a safety check at elderly home, assuring there are no hazards that can jeopardize their health. For many of the seniors participating in the Meals on Wheels, the visit is more than food delivery, but is also a way to socialize and receive a welcoming and attentive visit, which has a greater emotional impact in this population. These facts put the importance of Meals on Wheels in great evidence, once hunger, isolation and dependence is major problems American seniors face nowadays. Moreover, research supports that increase of hospitalization among elderly is strongly related with lack of home support, such as meal and safety check. The impact of Meals on Wheels is broad and can be extended to the rest of American citizen that are beneficed by paying less taxpayer in healthcare. Finally, the senior family is reassured that he or she is being nurtured and checked, which contributes directly to their quality of life.
However, the funds were greatly cut in 2013 and continued without any adjustment, despite increased spending on transportation and food preparation. The viability of the program was greatly harm, affecting several senior depending of the service. As a professional nursing, volunteer of this program, I notice that the lack of adjustment, having a direct impact on something as vital as feeding, eventually leads to other health problems that did not exist before. Thus, the demand for hospitalization and home care expenses increase to the same extent that there are cuts or no readjustments in the nutrition