Tag Archives for MOWRI

Meals on Wheels Rhode Island: New Strategic Plan Builds Resilience, Growth 

Published in RINewsToday on November 25, 2025

Today, nearly 13 million older Americans worry about having enough to eat, and a 2020 University of Michigan poll conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic found that 56% feel lonely—a level so severe it has been declared a public health epidemic.

Although the historic federal shutdown has ended, reimbursement for local Meals on Wheels providers remains uncertain, warned Meals on Wheels America (MOWA) President and CEO Ellie Hollander in response to the passage of the continuing appropriation ending the federal government shutdown.

According to Hollander, these funding delays caused serious financial strain for 9 in 10 local programs, which depend heavily on federal dollars through the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program. In fiscal year 2024, for the first time in a decade, this federal program was cut.  About 41% of providers rely on it for at least half of their operating budgets, she stated.

Hollander noted that prior to the 43-day shutdown, one in three Meals on Wheels programs had a waitlist, with an average wait time approaching four months—and some stretching to two years. The lingering effects of the shutdown, combined with flat federal funding and recent cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, will only deepen food insecurity among older adults and cause waitlists to grow even longer, she predicted.

Providing Nutritious Meals to Rhode Island’s Most Vulnerable

Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island (MOWRI) is one of 5,000 community-based providers (operating both home-delivered and congregate meal programs) nationwide, serving an estimated two million older adults, in total. Collectively, there are more than two million volunteers and 100,000 paid staff supporting these efforts.

MOWRI is not an affiliate of MOWA and is an independent nonprofit organization.  MOWRI reports a strong fund development portfolio, in addition to federal and state grant through the Older Americans Act and administered by the R.I. Office of Healthy Aging. The organization expects to raise more than $1 million through grants, individual donations, corporate partnerships, events and campaigns this year. Each year, more than 1,500 individuals make a gift to MOWRI.

A Solid History in RI

Founded in 1969 by gerontologist Joseph Brown, MOWRI began by serving hot lunches that met one-third of an older adults’ daily dietary requirements to just 17 Providence seniors along a single delivery route. By 2024, the organization had grown significantly. That year, 472 volunteers drove a combined 398,100 miles, visiting 3,738 clients Monday through Friday across 260 service days. Volunteers delivered 421,553 meals on 90 delivery routes statewide and conducted 328,000 well-being checks and social visits.

 In 2025, MOWRI is serving 77% more meals each weekday than five years ago and has expanded its reach to more at-risk populations in addition to homebound older adults, including pregnant and postpartum women and those living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses.

Responding to changes in federal funding for nutrition programs, combined with next year’s state economic outlook characterized by moderate revenue growth, MOWRI released its 15-page 2030 strategic plan,  Building Resilience, Deepening Impact, last week. “Our bold new strategy will allow us to extend our reach and improve the lives of even more Rhode Islanders through expanding our role as sector leaders, ensuring sustainable organizational growth, increasing our impact, and driving quality in all that we do,” said MOWRI Board President Christina Pitney in a statement announcing the plan on Nov. 19.

5-Year Plan Expands Nutrition & Wellness for Homebound

According to MOWRI, its five-year plan “utilizes a ‘Food for Service model’ to concurrently tackle food insecurity and social isolation with the goal of reducing loss of independence among homebound and frail older adult Rhode Islanders.” MOWRI’s Home-Delivered Meal Program offers daily, fully prepared nutritious meals to homebound Rhode Islanders delivered right to their door. With the delivery of the meal, the volunteer driver performs a safety-assuring wellness check along with a social visit.

MOWRI’s Emergency Meal Program is a component of the home-delivered meal service.  This program is specifically designed to provide a back-up supply of non-perishable food for clients to ensure that they have access to food if their regular daily meal delivery is interrupted by severe weather or other emergencies.

Eligibility for the traditional Home-Delivered Meal Program requires clients to be age 60 or older or qualify through a state waiver program. Participants must be homebound—unable to safely leave home without assistance—and cannot be enrolled in adult day care or a community dining program on days they receive home-delivered meals. For the Capital City Café Program, clients must be 60 years of age or older, or under 60 and living with a disability or receiving general public assistance.

MOWRI enters the 2030 planning period from a position of exceptional strength, the strategic plan notes, stating that its paid staff and volunteers have delivered more than 21 million meals to date and expanded services statewide, including Block Island. With decades of experience supporting older adults through nutrition, safety checks, social connection, and health-focused programming, the organization is now preparing for its next phase of growth. However, the plan also acknowledges rising service demands, stagnant public funding, and increasing competition, while emphasizing that MOWRI’s strong financial reserves, trusted reputation, and culture of innovation provide the foundation for deeper impact.

Stakeholder input, interviews, data analysis, and national best practices all point to the same conclusion: MOWRI must expand its role in the health, aging, and equity ecosystems while building the infrastructure necessary to sustain long-term progress. The strategic plan suggests that MOWRI’s “More Than a Meal” model evolve into a public health intervention. With changing demographics among the state’s aging and vulnerable populations, the organization seeks to further expand home- and community-based services to persons with disabilities, people under age 60, rural residents, school-aged children, perinatal clients, and those living with chronic illness.

MOWRI also seeks to enhance private-pay options designed for caregivers, individuals living alone, and those recovering from surgery or illness.

Recognizing the Importance of Partnerships

The strategic plan calls for using its existing and new partnerships with hospitals, health care systems, Medicaid providers, and insurers to allow the organization to support hospital discharge planning, chronic disease management, and post-hospitalization recovery. Meanwhile, this plan also foresees standardized health assessments and referral practices conducted during meal delivery, ensuring that staff who have direct in person interaction with clients and volunteers play a direct role in supporting participant health and safety.

The strategic plan calls for providing medically tailored meals that meet both the clinical and cultural needs of clients, elevating MOWRI’s position as a statewide demonstration site for Food-Is-Medicine initiatives.

The organization also intends to investigate nutritional counseling and other health-supportive services that improves medical outcomes and promotes aging in place. Additional priorities of this new strategic plan include the establishing well defined criteria to evaluate new programs based on its organizational mission, fiscal stability, and organizational capacity; strengthening the organization through succession planning, leadership development, expansion of volunteer base,  and targeted recruitment; and adopting organization-wide data systems to improve evaluation and decision-making.

Increased use of the Mobile Meals app will streamline delivery operations along with strengthening communication, enhancing participant monitoring, and supporting healthcare collaboration. Existing and new partnerships with academic institutions expands the organization’s research efforts. A new organizational dashboard can assist MOWRI’s leadership track key indicators and allocate resources effectively.

Finally, the strategic report emphasizes the importance and value of advocacy and its visibility.  As competition from for-profit and tech-enabled providers grows, the organization must elevate its position on policies and clearly communicate the unique value of personal connection, wellness checks, safety monitoring, and culturally responsive services.

Overall, MOWRI says its strategic plan positions the organization for sustained growth and expanded impact by 2030.

“Our future will not be without challenges, and we are focused on ensuring that every Rhode Islander has access to the nutrition, connection, and dignity they deserve,” says Executive Director Meghan Grady.

For more information on volunteering or making a gift to support MOWRI’s statewide impact, please visit www.rimeals.org.

New Detailed Aging Report Will Help Officials, Policymakers

Published in RINewsToday on May 17,2025


By Herb Weiss

In an era of tightening budgets and shrinking federal and state resources for aging programs, legislators, service providers, and advocates now have access to vital data that can help identify and address the unmet needs of older adults in their communities.

Just over a week ago, the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston released the latest Healthy Aging Data Reports (HADR), funded by the Point32Health Foundation. These reports offer a comprehensive, neighborhood-level view of aging in America—insights often unavailable from other sources.

Rhode Island’s updated report, released on May 1, 2025, follows previous editions published in 2016 and 2020. This year’s release also includes updates for Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and introduces a first-time report for Maine. The HADR team is now expanding its reach to additional regions, including parts of the Deep South (such as Mississippi) and the West (including Wyoming).

“This is what’s magical about our report: we provide data at very local levels,” says Dr. Elizabeth Dugan, principal investigator and associate professor of gerontology at UMass Boston. “That empowers local advocates, helps policymakers make smarter investments, and allows philanthropists to assess the impact of their contributions,” she says.

The Rhode Island report features 41 community profiles—covering each city and town, along with two neighborhoods in Providence. Drawing on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Medicare Summary Beneficiary Files, the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and state health departments, the report highlights disparities that may be hidden in broader state- or county-level statistics.

“What’s powerful about this approach is that we can observe health outcomes that vary dramatically even within a 10-minute walk in the same city,” adds Dugan.

Spotlight on Rhode Island

Several key findings emerged from the 2025 Rhode Island report:

  • Health: Rhode Island ranks highest in New England for rates of high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension, ischemic heart disease and peripheral hearth disease, stroke, multiple chronic conditions (four or more), and anxiety disorders.
  • Gender Disparities: Women experience anxiety and depression at rates 15% higher than men and are also more likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and PTSD.
  • Housing: Roughly 39% of older renters spend more than 35% of their income on housing. Additionally, 46% of Rhode Islanders aged 65 and older report annual incomes under $50,000.

“The Rhode Island Healthy Aging Data Reports are invaluable,” says Maureen Maigret, Policy Advisor for the Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island and a member of several state aging commissions. “They provide essential data down to the ZIP code level, which is useful for legislative testimony, policy recommendations, program planning, and grant writing.”

With Rhode Island’s older adult population rising from 16.5% in 2020 to 18% in 2025, this data is more critical than ever. “The report shows how age and racial diversity vary widely across communities,” Maigret says, noting that in some smaller towns, older adults now make up over 30% of the population.

Maigret notes that availability of localized data helps municipalities develop comprehensive plans and adopt age-friendly strategies. Interactive maps within the report allow comparisons with state averages, making it easier to target resources where they are most needed.

The report also reveals demographic shifts, including a rise in the Hispanic older adult population—from 4.9% in 2020 to 5.9% in 2025. “There are significant racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes,” says Maigret. “Black and Hispanic older adults are more likely to be dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and to be enrolled in Medicare managed care,” she says.

As lawmakers navigate complex budget negotiations and potential changes to federal programs such as the Administration for Community Living, Medicaid, and the CDC, Maigret stresses the importance of leveraging this data in decision-making.

“Despite the growth in our older population and increasing reports of elder abuse, neglect, and substandard nursing home care, the Office of Healthy Aging’s budget has remained relatively flat,” she warns. “With half of its funding coming from the federal government, proposed cuts could seriously undermine vital programs such as the Long-Term Care Ombudsman,” she adds.

The report also shines a light on mental health, showing high rates of depression and anxiety—especially among older women. Maigret believes this supports increased investment in the 988 mental health crisis line and other behavioral health services.

Another notable trend is the continued shift toward Medicare managed care, now covering more than half of Rhode Islanders aged 65 and older. While rates of arthritis and depression have increased, the report also notes a decline in nursing home stays, inpatient admissions, emergency room visits, and several chronic conditions such as diabetes, COPD, hypertension, and heart disease.

Since the 2020 report, communities have taken meaningful steps to support aging in place. “The Village Common of RI has built age-friendly communities that enable older adults to live independently with the care and resources needed to promote health and well-being,” says Maigret. “There are now 11 local villages across 14 communities, supported by trained volunteers who help members stay connected and independent.”

Data Driving Policy and Innovation

Marie E. Cimini, MSW, Director of the Rhode Island Office of Healthy Aging, says the HADR report has broad implications. “As a state agency, we must lead with policies that prioritize inclusion, access, and dignity throughout the aging journey.”

“The report reinforces our commitment to advancing the goals outlined in the RI 2030 Plan, especially around expanding in-home care, supporting workforce development, and strengthening behavioral health services,” Cimini continues. “But it also challenges us to go further—to integrate aging into every aspect of public life and ensure that the voices of older adults inform policy at every level.”

For Meghan Grady, Executive Director of Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island (MOWRI), one of the most important takeaways is the persistence of health disparities, particularly in managing chronic conditions. Grady supports legislation introduced by Sen. Victoria Gu (D-Dist. 38) and Rep. Justine Caldwell (D-Dist. 30) to integrate medically tailored meals into healthcare delivery. “This report validates our advocacy,” she says. “Food is a fundamental part of care, especially for aging populations facing health disparities.”

The HADR report is also proving instrumental for nonprofit organizations. “We use the data in community presentations, grant proposals, and to guide our work in promoting health equity,” says Debra Burton, Executive Director of RI Elder Info. “With so much uncertainty around policy and funding for programs that impact older adults and caregivers, this data helps us identify where changes will have the greatest impact,” she says.

James Connell, Executive Director of Age-Friendly RI, agrees. “The Healthy Aging Data Report is extraordinarily helpful for nonprofits across sectors. I used it to support funding for a home-share program that pairs older homeowners with individuals facing housing insecurity—a creative approach to our state’s housing crisis,” he says.

“The ’25 Healthy Aging Report provides vital indicators of older adult well-being that are essential for policymaking, intentional planning, and program development,” says Connell. “The data highlight serious concerns about the mental and emotional health of our community, with one in three Rhode Islanders experiencing anxiety and/or depression.” Connell also emphasizes the report’s finding that women are disproportionately affected, calling it “a clear call to action for improved screening and more accessible treatment options.”

Greg Shell, Chair of the Point32Health Foundation Board of Directors, emphasizes the value of data in shaping policy. “When we use data to guide our work, we can change policies and practices, engage communities, and highlight what truly matters,” he says. “These reports are essential tools in making New England a better place to grow up and grow old.”

The research team behind the Healthy Aging Data Reports includes: Principal Investigator Elizabeth Dugan, PhD, along with Nina Silverstein, PhD; Qian Song, PhD; Taylor Jansen, PhD; Jay Lee, PhD; Yan-Jhu Su, PhD; Han Lin, PhD; Shan Qu, MS; Tiffany Tang, BS; Jeannine Johnson, PhD; Amanda Cox, MS; and Mengshi Liu.

To access the 2025 Rhode Island Healthy Aging Data Report, visit https://healthyagingdatareports.org/ri/rhode-island-healthy-aging-data-report.