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Q&A
Discussion on congregate meals at older adult centers
1:56:06
·
4 min
Council Member Crystal Hudson inquires about the increase in congregate meals served at older adult centers and the costs associated with different types of meals. Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez and CFO Jose Mercado provide details on meal costs and participation trends.
- Congregate meals served increased by 9.7% in the first four months of FY2025
- Regular congregate meals cost about $5 per meal
- Catered meals cost about $8 per meal
- No difference in reimbursement rates for halal or kosher meals
- Participation in congregate meals is increasing but hasn't reached pre-COVID levels
Crystal Hudson
1:56:06
right.
1:56:06
And then congregate meals.
1:56:07
The PMMR shows that the number of congregate meals being provided at older adult centers increased in the first four months of fiscal twenty twenty five when compared to the same time period in fiscal twenty twenty four with 2,200,000 meals served to 87,772 older New Yorkers in the first four months of fiscal twenty twenty five, which was an increase of 9.7% in the number of meals and 3% in the number of participants.
1:56:34
How much does it cost to provide a congregate meal, and how do the costs vary between different types of meals such as halal or kosher?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:56:43
Reimbursement rates are different.
1:56:45
So you want to say that?
1:56:46
Yes.
1:56:46
Reimbursement rates different.
1:56:48
Jose will give you the details.
Jose Mercado
1:56:49
Right.
1:56:49
So a congregate meal is roughly about $5 and a a catered meal
Crystal Hudson
1:56:56
You said, sorry, a regular meal, 5?
Barbara Baer
1:56:57
5 dollars Congregate.
Jose Mercado
1:56:59
And a catered meal, we call it, is about $8
Crystal Hudson
1:57:03
Sorry, what's $8
Jose Mercado
1:57:04
8 dollars, like catered.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:57:05
Catered.
1:57:05
Like a catered meal.
1:57:06
Catered.
1:57:08
Is there a difference between halal and
Jose Mercado
1:57:10
It's we don't make a difference.
1:57:11
Okay.
Crystal Hudson
1:57:15
And you said it doesn't make a difference for halal or kosher?
Jose Mercado
1:57:18
No.
1:57:18
Yeah.
1:57:18
That's the budget that we have.
1:57:19
Mhmm.
Crystal Hudson
1:57:19
Okay.
1:57:23
Does NYC Aging anticipate further increase in participation in OAC activities and congregate meal consumption?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:57:34
Yeah.
1:57:35
We're we're we've seen an uptick in in congregate meals.
1:57:43
I don't know that we've gotten to pre COVID levels yet.
Crystal Hudson
1:57:49
Okay, but I would say also going off of that, the forty percent of the folks who took your survey, if you're engaging them, then maybe we can hope to see at least some portion of those folks lead to an increase in participation.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:58:04
And just to amplify that, the strategies that we're looking at, the other data that we're looking at, the pop up kitchens and see what that generates also.
1:58:13
I think the trend.
Crystal Hudson
1:58:14
You don't have those numbers from the pop up kitchen?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:58:17
No, no.
1:58:18
I can get them for you.
1:58:18
We do have them, but I don't have them.
1:58:20
Okay,
Crystal Hudson
1:58:20
that would be great.
1:58:22
A recurring rationale we hear from the imposition of PEGS is that the reduction is made because of underutilization of the service being cut.
1:58:30
The PMMR shows an increase in the number of older adults attending older adult centers and an increase in the average daily participation.
1:58:38
OACs served 112,062 older adults during the first four months of fiscal twenty twenty five, which is 2% greater than during the same period in fiscal twenty four, with an average of 27,916 participants attending daily, up 6.2% from the same period in fiscal twenty twenty four.
1:58:58
Pre pandemic, the average daily attendance was close to 30,000 older adults.
1:59:03
Despite this increase in utilization, PEGS to NYC Aging's budget have not been fully reversed.
1:59:09
What is the process and metrics NYC aging uses to evaluate and determine utilization at older adult centers?
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:59:23
Program reports daily, their daily participation in what we would, was our star system.
1:59:31
That is the data that we use.
Crystal Hudson
1:59:35
And But is it like people walking in the door, people having a meal, people engaging in a or some sort of?
1:59:44
Thank you for the clarification.
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
1:59:46
And I'm sorry that I wasn't.
1:59:47
We have different, we collect different data for each one of those.
1:59:53
We have meal participation.
1:59:55
We have activity participation so that we will see that more people, we have seen a trend, which we don't know if it's going to stay the same that people have been participating more and not consuming the meals as much.
2:00:13
And we also have seen that we also count hybrid participation.
2:00:19
And so that also impacts the number, why someone might be participating and not having a meal.
Susannah Ham
2:00:26
Got it.
Crystal Hudson
2:00:29
And then this is like just a more pointed question, but you've just sort of alluded to it.
2:00:35
But how much of a role do meals place in utilization calculations?
2:00:39
So they're part of the calculation but not the entirety, And
Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez
2:00:45
OACs were established to address food insecurity fifty something years ago.
Crystal Hudson
2:00:51
So central but not the entire soul.