The number of Spokane-area seniors who rely on nonprofit meal programs for at least one hot meal per day has increased significantly in the last couple of years, and that demand is expected to continue growing as baby boomers enter their senior years, program directors say.

Along with that rising increase in users, Spokane's two primary senior meal programs have undergone some changes in their operating models since the beginning of the year. Because of that, one program is experiencing a greatly increased need for private donations, while the other's service territory has expanded widely.

Pam Almeida, the executive director of Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels, which provides both on-site and delivered hot meals to seniors during weekdays, says she's seen the number of people the organization serves rise sharply in the last year.

She says that increase is due both to an expansion of the territory the organization serves, and a continuing increase in the number of seniors who simply depend on the program's services for one nutritious hot meal a day.

Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels, formerly called Valley Meals on Wheels, before this year mostly had just served seniors in the greater Spokane Valley area. It now serves all of the Valley as well as Deer Park, Cheney, parts of the city of Spokane, and some unincorporated areas of southern Spokane County, Almeida says.

"Overall we rose 10 percent just last month, from 20,000 to 22,000 meals served, so it's a big increase," she says.

At the beginning of this year, Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels was awarded the government-funded contract from the region's agency on aging, Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington, to oversee the provision of congregate and delivered meals to seniors in the county. Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels is based at 12101 E. Sprague in Spokane Valley and recently moved there from smaller quarters at 321 S. Dishman-Mica, Almeida says.

The Spokane Regional Health District formerly had held the meals program contract, Almeida says, and had overseen the program but subcontracted the preparation and delivery of senior meals to Valley Meals on Wheels and Meals on Wheels Spokane.

Almeida asserts that cutting out the Regional Health District as the program's manager means there now is more money available to provide meals and related services to seniors in the county who need them.

Also starting this year, Meals on Wheels Spokane—operated by Mid City Concerns, a nonprofit that provides delivered meals, on-site meals, and activities to seniors at its downtown center, at 1222 W. Second—opted out of state and federal funding for its senior nutrition program.

The nonprofit's director, Mollie Dalpae, says its board of directors didn't agree with some of the terms of a proposed subcontractor agreement with Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels. That contract would have been required for Meals on Wheels Spokane to continue receiving federal funding, she says.

"The contract that was presented was unacceptable in its terms, and we decided to move away from that funding," Dalpae says. "It was a $246,000 cut to our budget."

The agreement, she says, would have limited Mid-City's ability to raise funds privately. The organization also wouldn't have been able to make its own public statements without permission from Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels, Dalpae says. Also, Mid City would have been required to have its meals prepared by Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels.

"Our organization currently provides Meals on Wheels services at a price-per-meal that is substantially lower than the cost of the meals provided by Valley Meals on Wheels, which allows us to feed additional individuals," she says.

Mid City's congregate on-site meals and the Meals on Wheels program both are available to seniors age 60 or older. The delivered meals include a hot lunch five days a week along with two frozen meals that are delivered for the weekend, Dalpae says. Suggested donations are $4 a meal, but only if the recipient can afford it, she adds.

At Mid City's downtown senior center, breakfast and lunch are provided to those who are able to come there, and the meals are available daily throughout the week. In all, Dalpae says the Meals on Wheels program provides more than 200 meals per week to homebound seniors, and the center serves between 50 and 60 meals each day.

Despite the subcontract disagreement and the relinquishment of its federal funding, Dalpae says Meals on Wheels Spokane has been able to make up its sizable budget gap through money it's received from private donations, fundraisers, and grants.

"I think we are stronger in the sense that the state will continue to cut back on social services, and to be dependent on the government for a large chunk of your budget is unhealthy," she says. "We are a year ahead of everyone else in terms of the budget cuts. When you are dependent on 5,000 people for donations instead of one, you have the ability to sway."

Dalpae says Meals on Wheels Spokane continues to serve many of the same seniors living in the city that it did before breaking off from government funding, although she says the number of people it serves still is steadily increasing.

Last year the organization delivered 78,000 Meals on Wheels meals and provided 15,000 meals to seniors at the Mid City center. Of those seniors receiving the delivered-meal services, 76 percent live alone, and 44 percent have incomes of less than $1,000 a month. Of those seniors who have meals delivered to their homes, 54 percent rarely eat with another person, and Dalpae says for many, the volunteer driver who delivers their meals might be the only person they see all day or even all week.

"We are the eyes and ears in the community keeping them safe," she says. "Several times a year, we will find someone in critical need."

While Dalpae says she isn't sure exactly how much the organization's meal program clients have increased, she says the senior population in the Spokane area is expected to increase by 20 percent during the next decade as the first wave of baby boomers enters their 70s and 80s.

Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels is seeing an increase in demand similar to that of Meals on Wheels Spokane, and also experienced a drop in funding for the first six months of this year, Almeida says.

About half of the county Meals on Wheels program's annual budget is federally funded, she says, with the remainder coming from private donors and other fundraising events. Almeida says $20,000 of the organization's estimated $600,000 of annual federal funding was cut at the beginning of this year. She says, though, that due to the savings that resulted from the elimination of the Spokane Regional Health District as the county's meals program manager, that cut wasn't felt as deeply as it could have been.

"We are doing okay," she says. "We could always use more funding and our individual donations are a bit down this year, but we will have our annual fund drive in the next month or so."

The goal for that fundraising push is to raise $50,000, she adds.

Also helping to make up for funding dips and a simultaneous increase in need is a recently awarded $50,000 grant from Walmart on behalf of the Meals on Wheels Association of America that is planned to help fund Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels' goal to open a standalone restaurant. That venture is intended to be another revenue source to support the nutrition program, and will be named the Silver Cafe, Almeida says.

She says the organization currently is in the process of looking for a site in either Spokane or Spokane Valley to open the standalone restaurant, and that the goal is to have it up and running sometime before the end of this year.

It will be open both to seniors and the general public, although seniors will be able to purchase meals there at a discounted price.

The Spokane Valley-based organization currently operates a total of 15 congregate meals sites for seniors, at neighborhood senior centers, churches, schools, and private retirement communities throughout the county, Almeida says. She says those sites also are branded under the Silver Cafe name, but only are open to seniors, unlike the planned restaurant by the same name.

The newest Silver Cafe senior meal site opened late last month at Clare House Retirement Community, on Spokane's South Hill, she says. The cafes at retirement living centers also are open to seniors who don't live on the facility campus, Almeida adds.

The purpose of calling the congregate meal programs by another name, Almeida says, is to dispel the stereotype that the food served at senior centers doesn't taste good.

"A lot of people have not attended senior centers to dine because they were afraid the food wouldn't be good, so the Silver Cafe partly started to rebrand the meals as cafe-style," she says.

In addition, Almeida says Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels also recently began offering catering services as part of the Silver Cafe to businesses and nonprofits in the community, with the proceeds benefiting the senior meals services.

Despite the disagreement between Mid City Concerns and Greater Spokane County Meals on Wheels, Almeida says the most important thing is that hungry seniors are receiving a hot nutritious meal.

"There are still hungry seniors, and our goal is to reach all of them," she says. "If Mid City is reaching some, that makes it better and more people are eating. As long as people are being fed, that's what we want to happen."