QUESTION
What actions is NYC Aging taking to improve older adult center kitchens?
0:31:07
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147 sec
NYC Aging addresses concerns about older adult center kitchen equipment by creating 5 commissary kitchens to replace expensive catering with in-house meal preparation.
- Commissary kitchens aim to prevent reliance on costly caterers and ensure better meal quality and monitoring.
- Newly established kitchens receive additional equipment; existing ones are expanded to become preferred caterers.
- Transition aims to move as many programs as possible from commercial to nonprofit network caterers.
- Challenges include accommodating religiously required meals, with current solutions like India House providing halal food.
- The initiative also focuses on maintaining cultural diversity and religious preferences in meal offerings.
Adrienne Adams
0:31:07
Let's take a look at our older adult center kitchen improvements.
0:31:11
I know I've heard from Brooks senior center a a whole lot on this issue in my district.
0:31:16
In our recent conversations with advocates and providers, one of the issues they consistently mentioned is the lack of reliable equipment in older adult center kitchens.
0:31:26
We know that when centers lack fully functional equipment, providers are on able to provide scratch cooking, cooking from scratch, which most of us love to do.
0:31:35
And our 4 cicater meals, which can be both more expensive and less nutritious.
0:31:40
And less nutritive.
0:31:41
What is NYC Aging doing to address these concerns?
UNKNOWN
0:31:45
Thank you.
0:31:47
We last
Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez
0:31:47
year, And with Castleman and Hudson's support, we were able to have create 5 commissary kitchens because we too were concerned.
0:31:59
About the number of providers that were relying on catering.
0:32:02
So our goal is to make sure that meals are not catered by expensive caterers who then we can't monitor their their cooking.
0:32:12
The program does.
0:32:13
And we can't even monitor their facilities.
0:32:15
Mhmm.
0:32:16
And so many programs were getting poor poor performance indicators.
0:32:21
What we did was create 5 commissary kitchens, which are older adult clubs themselves, gave them additional equipment.
0:32:29
Some of them already had equipment, and what we did was span those kitchens so that then they could be the the caterer of choice from someone who already knows how to do this.
0:32:39
And that's that is what we're doing now, and we are shifting more and more programs.
0:32:44
The goal is to shift as many programs out of catering.
0:32:49
From commercial caterers to these nonprofit network provider to caterers who can then provide the food.
0:32:56
That's what we're we're looking to do as much as we possibly can.
0:33:00
That process sometimes is challenged by And we're looking at this now challenged by religiously required meals.
0:33:10
Right?
0:33:10
We might not have a caterer of who has the capacity to do that wholesale.
0:33:15
Fortunately for us, we have India House that can provide many of the halal food.
0:33:20
But that is not the case for some of the other ones.
0:33:23
And so that is that's a challenge that we're looking at right now and making sure that we can have both.
0:33:27
Cultural diversity and religious preferences as through this model that we're creating.
Adrienne Adams
0:33:33
Okay.