Eskenazi expands Meals on Wheels

As baby boomers age, they are bringing their dining preferences to senior feeding programs such as Meals on Wheels (MOW) and those preferences include having more options than what such programs typically offered.

In Indianapolis and its surrounding areas, Meals on Wheels of Central Indiana (MOWCI) is getting a leg up on satisfying this growing preference thanks to its association with Eskenazi Health. The Indianapolis-based hospital system is a major supplier of prepared meals to MOWCI, producing up to a quarter of its needs in its central kitchen.

Pre-portioned meals roll through the Eskenazi kitchen sealer prior to frozen storage until ordered by Meals on Wheels clients as an alternative to the day’s selection.

A growing proportion of those meals coming out of the Eskenazi kitchen consist of a fairly wide selection of pre-portioned frozen meals that are available for custom ordering by MOW customers off of what is in effect a takeout menu. Consequently, what MOWCI’s senior clients now have is a choice of either getting the day’s traditional hot meal or selecting from almost a dozen frozen meal options that they can retherm in a microwave or conventional oven.

“The client can call Meals on Wheels and order not just how many meals they want but which ones,” explains Thomas Thaman, director of food & nutrition for Eskenazi Health. “We do have a set menu that we deliver each day, but if they don’t like it, they can order one of the frozen meals. It’s a much more effective approach to meal delivery.”

The frozen meals are made from overproduction of each day’s regular output, which runs on a 12-day cycle. As the kitchen moves through that cycle, it builds up an inventory of extra plated meals that are part of the takeout menu available for ordering by clients as an alternative to the day’s selection.

“It’s really a very nifty way to do it,” laughs Thaman, “because it’s not like we’re making 10 different meals every day.” Essentially, the production schedule remains the same as before except the kitchen produces a little more than is needed for each day’s deliveries. And as time has gone on, preference patterns have been determined so the kitchen knows which meals will have higher demand so it can calibrate its output.

The frozen meal option launched in late 2016 to modest demand but has been steadily picking up adherents ever since, Thaman says. It now averages about 1,400 a month.

The meals are prepared in the main Eskenazi hospital’s production kitchen, with hot items blast-chilled after cooking to cool them quickly. The food slated for the takeout menu is then portioned, packaged, sealed, labeled and stored in a freezer until ready to be shipped to clients.

Thaman notes that the meals are made with fresh ingredients and contain no preservatives, unlike many commercial frozen meals that are often high in preservatives like sodium.

In addition to the home-delivered meals, Eskenazi also produces bulk food for three adult day centers that provide congregate dining.

“It’s a way for them to get meals that are very economically priced,” Thaman says. “We don’t make a lot of money on Meals on Wheels; rather, it’s a part of our mission at Eskenazi Health.”

Infrastructure modifications to institute the frozen meal program were minimal.

“The only thing really we had to invest in was a sealer,” Thaman offers, “and we also found a container that was appropriate.” He says the other equipment, such as the two blast chillers, were already on hand, dating back to when the hospital opened in 2013.

On the other hand, the substantial increase in MOW production necessitated the opening of a new midnight shift in the kitchen.

“We actually do all our Meals on Wheels in the middle of the night,” Thaman says. “We are so busy doing other things during the day that this is a way to get time and room in the kitchen to [produce the MOW meals].”

The big worry about this production schedule is maintaining proper sanitation of the production facilities, Thaman concedes.

“The one thing I get concerned about with overnight shifts is that we reserve enough time to get the equipment properly cleaned and sanitized,” he says.

Consequently, the kitchen is closed for cleaning and sanitation every evening between the end of the day shift and the start of the midnight shift’s MOW production operations, “and then we keep the steward on throughout the night to keep the kitchen clean,” Thaman adds.