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Please vote between June 13 and June 30, 2012, for Meals On Wheels Atlanta.

We will use the new vehicle to deliver nutritious meals to more than 300 homebound seniors each day in Atlanta.  We currently have more than 150 people on our waitlist in need of meals.  Georgia ranks seventh in the nation for senior food insecurity.  More than 8,300,000 seniors go hungry in the U.S. each day.

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MEALS ON WHEELS ATLANTA ANNOUNCES SUNDAY SUPPERS

Local Chefs Prepare Intimate Dinners in Private Homes

Meals On Wheels Atlanta (MOWA) will hold a series of Sunday Suppers this spring to raise money to help feed homebound seniors. Currently, more than 100 people are on the waitlist in need of daily nutrition that Meals On Wheels Atlanta provides.


Intimate dinners prepared by the finest Atlanta chefs will be held throughout the city in April and May. Chefs include Joe Truex (Watershed), Paul Albrecht (Paul’s), Liz Cipro (A Legendary Event), Gerry Klaskala (Aria), Todd Ginsberg (Bocado), Olivier Gaupin (Eleven at Loews Atlanta), Bennett Hollberg (Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse), Shaun Doty (Yeah! Burger) and more. Hosts include Joanne and Charles Ackerman, Sandra and Dan Baldwin, Cindy and Bill Fowler, Elizabeth and Carleton Allen, Jack Sawyer and Bill Torres, Sharon Umphenour, Judy Zaban, Paul Hagedorn, Su and Al Longman, Leslie and David Wierman, and others.

Meals On Wheels Atlanta delivers more than 100,000 meals a year to Atlanta seniors who, for a variety of reasons, may be unable to meet their own nutritional needs. From short-term to long-term assistance, the difference MOWA and its volunteers makes to these seniors is undeniable. In addition to the nutrition aspect, the daily visits made by staff and volunteers to individuals whose lives are mobility-limited, make such a difference to these seniors’ lives. More than 6,000,000 seniors go hungry in the U.S. each day and Georgia ranks sixth for senior food insecurity.

Dates for the dinners are April 29, May 6, and May 20. Tickets are $300 per person and may be purchased by phoning 404-604-8450.

About Meals On Wheels Atlanta / Senior Citizen Services of Metropolitan Atlanta, Inc. (SCS), a nonprofit, community-based organization, has been providing services since 1965 and supports senior independence through meals, shelter, education and community. Their programs include Meals On Wheels Atlanta, Home Repair Services, Vivian T. Minor Adult Day Care for Alzheimer’s/Dementia, and Fulton County Neighborhood Senior Centers. For more information on programs, please visit www.scsatl.org.

Report: Atlanta region ranked as the worst metro area for seniors’ access to transit

September 14, 2011

By Maria Saporta for www.saportareport.com

The Transportation for America, a coalition that promotes smarter transportation investment, has ranked Atlanta as the worst metro area in providing seniors access to mass transit.

Such a ranking is especially devastating for metro Atlanta — a region that is projecting a dramatic increase in senior citizens.

The report — “Aging in Place, Stuck without Options” — determined that the majority of the nation’s metro areas with a population of more than 1 million people provided seniors with poor access to transit.

The number of senior citizens with poor access to transit will continue to grow as the baby boom generation continues to get older.

“While some aging baby boomers and empty nesters have been moving from suburbs to downtowns, the vast majority of older Americans continue to reside in car-dependent suburban and rural communities,” the report stated.

“Inevitably, their ability to navigate these communities by vehicle will diminish or disappear over time, and millions of older adults will need transportation alternatives in order to maintain their independence,” the report continued.
The Urban Land Institute, in its Urban Land publication, reported on the

Transportation for America’s ranking and determined that was a wide variation of metro areas providing seniors with access to transit.

The study defined seniors as people aged 65 to 79. And poor access was defined people having fewer than two bus, rail or ferry routes within walking distance of their home.

“Not surprisingly, the metros offering the best transit access for seniors are typically larger, coastal metropolises with larger transit systems, such as New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.,” the report stated.

“The worst metropolitan areas for seniors’ transit mobility tend to be more inland, with stagnant or shrinking bus systems,” the report continued. “Interestingly, the 11 worst metros include several places with rail systems, such as Atlanta, Charlotte, and Nashville, suggesting their systems may be too small.”

The finding of this report comes at a particularly significant time for metro Atlanta. Currently, the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable is considering a draft list of transportation projects that would be implemented if voters approve a one-cent regional sales tax next year.

The draft project list would invest 55 percent of the revenue in transit projects and 45 percent in road projects.

The Urban Land Institute said that the metro areas that rank the worst for seniors’ access to transit offers an opportunity for its members and real estate professionals. It stated that those metro areas could be “ripe” for senior housing projects that are part of a transit-oriented development with bus or rail stops.

The 11 worst metro areas for seniors’ having access to transit are:

1. Atlanta. In 2015, it is projected that the region will have 503,543 people between the ages of 65 to 79. Ninety percent of that population would have “poor transit access” in 2015.

2. Kansas City. Senior population in 2015: 230,023 with 88 percent with poor transit access.

3. Oklahoma City. senior population: 136,571; poor transit access: 86 percent.

4. Nashville. senior population: 151,995; poor transit access: 85 percent.

5. Raleigh-Durham. senior population: 127,931; poor transit access: 80 percent.

6. Indianapolis. 181,073; 79 percent.

7. Charlotte. 170,815; 79 percent (a tie).

8. Jacksonville. 127,958; 77 percent.

9. Virginia Beach-Norfolk. 147,285; 69 percent.

10. Rochester. 116,565; 69 percent (a tie).

11. Riverside-San Bernardino. 278,305; 69 percent (a tie)

Who Wants to Be Mayor?

This week, I listened to four of the Atlanta Mayoral candidates as they spoke to the Atlanta chapter of the Association of Professional Fundraisers. The participants were Lisa Borders, Mary Norwood, Kasim Reed, and Jesse Spikes.

They each bring a wealth of experience with them: work in the corporate world, the not-for-profit arena, politics on the state and local level, and a passion to make the City of Atlanta better. As they were speaking about the many challenges facing our city, I wondered why anyone would want the job of Mayor?

Because they were talking to a group who are mostly employed by nonprofits, the candidates spent a lot of time talking about how important nonprofits are to Atlanta. Georgia is home to more than 8000 nonprofits and Atlanta hosts the national headquarters of several national and international charities: Care, American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity, and many more.

The most glaring omission on the part of the panel was direct human services. For more than 40 years, Senior Citizen Services has been the safety net for older citizens “enabling seniors to enjoy a high quality of life, maintaining their independence and dignity.” We do that by providing home-delivered meals to frail seniors through our Meals On Wheels Atlanta program. We keep seniors in their own homes through our Home Repair Services program and through our Adult Day Care program. We give seniors an outlet for socialization through our eight Neighborhood Senior Centers. We provide transportation to shopping and medical appointments through our CareShare program.

The City can’t be all things for all people; nor can Senior Citizen Services. However, we know that each day we are helping many of our “seasoned saints” live fuller, richer, and safer lives in their own homes in Atlanta.

-- by Steve Hargrove, Director of Events and Marketing

Atlanta a Great Place to Retire

The Atlanta Regional Commission has a Division on Aging that serves as Atlanta’s Area Agency on Aging (AAA). No matter where you live in the 50 states, you should be covered by a AAA that is responsible for implementing the services mandated by the Older Americans Act. We are fortunate that Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has a fantastic staff that is constantly reaching out to work with local nonprofit organizations like SCS to serve the needs of seniors better.

ARC completed a fascinating study of older adults in 2006 to supplement basic US Census information that is only collected every ten years. A few of the key findings include:

• A majority of older adults think the Atlanta region is a good place to retire (67%).
• Most older adults have been aging in place —living in the region an average of 37 years — and most hope to continue aging in place; 64% state that they would remain in their current home as long as they can.
• Even if they do move from their existing home, 52% plan to move to another home in the Atlanta region.
(Source: http://www.atlantaregional.com/documents/ag_aging_survey_5_1_08.pdf)

These key findings spotlight the challenging future of aging service organizations like Senior Citizen Services: more seniors are enjoying Atlanta for retirement; more seniors plan to age in place; more seniors plan to remain homeowners.

-- by Jeffrey Smythe, Executive Director