Gerami Pacheco joined the Coastline Nutrition Program in December 2023, directing the Meals on Wheels program, he noticed a few things early on about the challenges and successes of the longstanding program.
On the positive side, getting nutritious meals to older adults on schedule by caring, well-trained staff with superb food safety procedures was, despite its complexity, an incredibly well-run operation.
“The distribution of the food was and still is phenomenal. Getting everything set up, having all the drivers go out of their way and how they handle everything with food safety, it’s phenomenal and just the care and the hospitality they put behind it. I did not build that, that was all (retired Nutrition Director) Phil (Beard),” he said about his predecessor in the role. “He built that from the ground up and I think everyone, no matter what they may have felt about the meals, I think they associate us with that safety check and the drivers and employees who truly do care.”
But Pacheco also saw a program that had been serving the same food for decades and had become known for bland, overcooked meals.
“There was this stigma behind the program,” he said. “Whether it was negative or bad, it was still 26 years of the same stuff.”
Despite only being on the job for a few months, he set out to change that. With support from Coastline leadership, Pacheco began a bidding process for a new food provider, completing a normally year-long process in just four months and signing with a new provider this summer.
The result was better tasting meals that began reaching older adults in the South Coast in October as part of a quiet launch to allow Coastline to get a sense of people’s reactions to it.
The response has been incredible.
Martha Reed, Council on Aging director in Fairhaven, said the meals look better, have greater variety, and have been consistently good since the launch. One recent meal had the whole dining room buzzing with how good it was.
“Some of the variety is very different from what people are used to and I think they’re really liking that,” she said. “There was one day, they served a beef teriyaki and the dining room was such a buzz on how good it was. I think it just made a difference to these folks that this really is a different meal.”
The food has been fantastic, agreed Amy DiPietro, COA director in Dartmouth.
“I think a lot of people eat with their eyes and this is colorful,” she said. “The vegetables are fresh and bright.”
That wasn’t always how it looked with the previous food provider, she said.
“It used to be gray,” DiPietro said. “Everything was gray, so now it’s definitely focused on fresh ingredients and obviously a better quality. People seem happy.”
Consistency was one of the reasons reviewers put the new provider, Boston-based City Fresh, at the top of their list again and again during the bidding process.
“It’s all about that consistency,” said Pacheco. “City Fresh serves 30,000 meals every day to not just us, but Boston Public Schools as well, and they do that without a hitch and everything comes out the exact same. I could have meal number one and it’s going to taste the exact same as meal number 30.”
City Fresh is a Boston-area meals provider which has been around for 30 years and is well known in the city area for feeding people through aging services and the public schools.
It was able to take on Coastline’s meals program, which is one of only two in the state that serves hot meals, and is therefore more complex than others which stick to only frozen foods. For City Fresh, making the food each morning and delivering it hot hasn’t been a problem.
Looking back, Pacheco said the move was a risk. People may not have been happy with the taste of the old food, but they loved getting their meals, their relationships with drivers, and the regular safety checks, and some worried about the change.
But now, watching people enjoy the meals, makes it all worth it.
“That’s like my big thing is that they actually are now eating it,” he said. “They’re getting the nutrients we’ve always wanted them to get. Because at the end of the day, nutrition is the building block for life and it’s going to be able to help them…live an independent life.”
Pacheco said he got a call from one woman who had been angry about the changes and complaining before the new meals even debuted.
She changed her tune after trying a meal, he said.
“She called me again last week and apologized. She said, ‘I thought you were blowing smoke.’ She was over the moon about the meals and telling all her friends,” he said, adding that these positive comments have been personally rewarding. “It’s so nice to hear that people are happy about the change. I’m grateful.”
Next up, Pacheco says Coastline is working to transition to actual dinnerware and utensils and to create Grab & Go menus.
“We’re hoping to do some Grab & Go programs at some sites that will give people a little more flexibility and freedom to come and go as they please, do other activities and such,” said Pacheco. “And it’s still no additional charge to the consumer. We just ask for donations.”
Starting this month, Coastline made the decision to increase its voluntary donation request to $3 per meal, still well below the actual cost of the meal.
The program depends on state and federal funding to exist. Years of rising costs, level funding and recent state budget cuts have made it more difficult to continue meeting the local need, the organization said.
“Coastline remains committed to serving meals to every older adult who needs one,” said CEO Justin Lees. “It’s why we’re here and we don’t want to see any eligible person go without.”
Instead, the organization is looking to increase its advocacy and fundraising efforts to make up the meals budget difference which for the seven towns the agency covers is more than $1 million annually.
Despite the challenge, Pacheco is happy that the new meals are a hit among older adults.
At Fairhaven COA recently, three town residents, Dottie Shope, Joan Carlson, and Alta Wotton, said the new meals have been a big improvement.
“They’re excellent,” Carlson said.
“I ate everything which is very unusual,” added Shope. “If it continues like this, I’ll be very happy.”
Interested in tasting the new meals? Coastline is hosting an open house with City Fresh to introduce the meals and meal provider to the community. The event is from 2-3:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 at Coastline’s location at 863 Belleville Ave., New Bedford. RSVP by Nov. 13 by calling 508-999-6400, Ext. 3.
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