Presbyterian Homes & Services Feeds Seniors Where They Live with Optage Meals

By Jim Nelson | October 11, 2024

We learned earlier this year in a survey published by U.S. News & World Report that an even higher percentage of seniors (65 and older) plan to age in place now than previously — it’s up to 95 percent of those seniors, compared with 93 percent a year ago. And with an average of 2.2 million Americans turning 65 every year over the next 10 years, we could be seeing more and more seniors choosing to not come live at senior living communities.

So, what’s that familiar saying? Meet them where they are?

That’s what Presbyterian Homes & Services is doing. The Roseville, Minnesota-based senior living organization offers IL, AL, memory care, long-term care, and transitional care, and for those seniors who prefer to age at home, the company also offers Optage Meals.

To get the scoop on PHS’s home-delivered meals program, Senior Living News spoke with Optage Meals’ Provider Relations Representative Avery Kearney.

SENIOR LIVING NEWS: What is Optage Meals?

AVERY KEARNEY: Optage Meals is a home-delivered meal service. We service the seven-county metro area of the Twin Cities and Wright County. We serve elderly individuals, individuals that are on Medicaid state waivers, and we also serve people through our federally funded Title III program along with private paying individuals. We’re unique in the sense that we have our own staff of drivers, and we also produce a lot of our product in house using fresh ingredients, and we have a full commissary kitchen here in Roseville, where all the food gets prepared, packaged, packed, and then it gets delivered using our own staff.

SLN: How long have you been doing that?

AK: Optage has existed since 2010. We have some staff members that have been here since the very beginning, which I think is pretty unique. It’s a testament to the mission and the product that people believe in strong enough to stay at the company for that long.

SLN: How long have you been there?

AK: I started in 2019. Before that I worked for Presbyterian Homes & Services at one of our senior living facilities throughout high school and some of college as well.

SLN: And now you work offsite?

AK: Correct. Optage Meals has a full commissary kitchen in Roseville, Minnesota. So, we have all the kitchen supplies to prepare the meals, we have a production line, loading docks where the trucks come in, and we have a little office area for intake staff, admin people, things like that.

SLN: And Optage Meals was founded by Presbyterian Homes & Services?

AK: Yes. The idea was there’s a population of people that might not have the ability to go into a senior living facility, but there are other options that enable us to bring the services to them in their home. And part of that is the home-delivered meals, along with home care, things like that.

SLN: Who’s it geared toward?

AK: The majority of people that we serve are on a home- and community-based services waiver through the state of Minnesota and state Medicaid. For example, a disabled individual needing a certain level of care often receives a waiver, allowing funding to be allocated to a home-delivered meal service. We get a referral from their waiver case manager and then we are able to start serving them meals. In addition, we do a lot of deliveries to people who are age 60 or older and at nutritional risk. That’s our federally funded program called Title III. So, we serve Medicaid clients through the state then nutritionally at-risk seniors through federal funding.

SLN: If I’m just a guy living near you, I’m not on any waivers, I don’t have Medicaid or anything like that, I just want home-delivered food. Is there an option that I can pay for?

AK: We do offer private-pay meals to anyone of any age, they just have to be in our delivery boundaries. For example, we do have some younger clients who get the meals for their lunch at work.

SLN: What would you say the percentage is of people who, like you just described, just want to take advantage of the opportunity versus those who are really in need of your help?

AK: A very large percentage of people we serve are either on a waiver or getting meals through the federal funding; maybe as high as 90 percent.

SLN: How many total meals are you making every day?

AK: Every day we’re producing around 3,000 to 7,000.

SLN: That’s a lot of meals.

AK: Between home-delivered meals, congregate meals, and cook chill products delivered to PHS sites we serve roughly 140,000 meals per month.

SLN: You said congregate meals?

AK: We have a few sites where we serve a lunch type of meal for some residents to enjoy each other’s company while having a meal, more congregate style, rather than just delivering the meals up to their apartment.

SLN: Are those locations that you guys own or where you partnered with other people?

AK: It would be partnerships. We have strong community partnerships to allow us to serve those most in need. Locations may be at nonprofits organization, community centers or low-income senior living apartments.

SLN: You said you’re making 3,000 to 7,000 meals a day; is that 3,000 to 7,000 people or do some people get multiple meals in a day?

AK: Generally speaking, you’re able to get up to seven meals a week. So, the total number of clients served a month, including all the different types of meals that we serve, is anywhere from 9,000 to 10,000.

SLN: Logistically that is a big deal. There’s a lot of things to keep track of there, including specialized diets. Tell me about how you handle all the different dietary requests.

AK: We don’t provide individualized meals. We offer a general meal plan as well as several diet-specific plans on the menu. For example, we offer heart healthy, carb-conscious, low sodium, renal friendly, and vegetarian meals. We work with one of our corporate dieticians through Presbyterian Homes, who makes the diet plans. And we’re able to offer our clients the nutritional information for all the meals, too, if they’re needing more specific details.

SLN: Are you switching the menus out regularly like a senior living community might do, or is it all pretty well set?

AK: It is pretty much set. We have around 60 options right now, so it is a pretty large variety. We have a three-to-five-week menu cycle of “daily features”; a lot of our clients actually prefer to get the daily features. As a way to take a little bit of the burden off of someone, if they don’t order the meals, we automatically send them the daily features for the week. That way we ensure that they’re getting the proper nutrition for at least one meal a day.

SLN: If I’m one of the people who receives meals from you, how does that work? I go on your website and say, “I feel like some pasta today,” or do I order that three days ago?

AK: It would really all start with either a referral from somebody or calling us and asking, “How do I get your meals?” Essentially, the intake process is as simple as getting them entered into our software, and then everybody gets sent a welcome packet and we call clients four business days in advance to let them know their first delivery day. Then we get their first two weeks’ worth of orders, and with that very first delivery we drop off an order form; they fill out what they want and give it back to the driver the next week. So, clients are ordering two weeks in advance. Otherwise, clients can always call us or email us their orders. We just need to find out what clients like four days in advance. If that doesn’t work, clients can just opt in to get the daily features every week.

SLN: And what do clients receive when your driver shows up today to bring them food? Is it hot and ready to eat now, is it frozen? Is it a box full of things that they can then eat over the next few days?

AK: The majority of people get frozen meals, so the driver shows up with your meals inside of a cooler bag. Inside they will find TV dinner-style trays with their protein, starch, and vegetable. And with most items they’ll get a dinner roll and fruit or a fruit cup. And they’ll get a beverage with each meal, which is either juice or milk. That would be for the frozen meals. In certain counties we deliver hot meals daily; that delivery essentially looks the same, but it takes place every single day.

SLN: And how many people work at Optage Meals?

AK: Near 60. We run extremely lean for the amount of food that we’re producing. It’s down to basically an exact science, every single step along the road, to be able to deliver that much food every single day. A lot of very smart people that come from all different backgrounds — business, healthcare, culinary. It is an amazing melting pot of people that just believe in this mission. It really is incredible; every single day is incredible here.

SLN: Your website says that Optage Meals will not turn away clients based on ability or lack thereof to pay for their meals. What does that actually mean?

AK: It depends on grants, a little bit. We have certain grants that are able to help cover the cost of the meals for individuals who aren’t able to make a contribution or pay at all. Otherwise, we do have a Mission Benevolence Fund created through donor gifts, as well; we can put people’s meals on the Mission Benevolence Fund and that’ll cover the cost. At the end of the day, we’re in the business of feeding people, so whatever that looks like, however that needs to get done, that’s what we’re going to do.

SLN: Is there anything else that we haven’t touched on?

AK: The quality of our food is something that we’re very proud of. Most of it is cooked inhouse, with fresh ingredients, so a lot of the soups, sauces, gravies, and muscle meats are cooked by us. And as I mentioned earlier, it really has been 13, 14 years of perfecting recipes that are going to be made in bulk and then delivered in bulk. There’s a sweet science to that. It’s not like we’re just making one plate of food; we’re making 3,000 plates of food that all need to taste good. And I think our diversity is incredible. We do serve traditional Hmong and Karen meals [Editor’s note: The Minneapolis/St. Paul area is home to more Southeast and East Asian Hmong (pron. mung) and Karen (pron. kuh REN) immigrants than anywhere else in the country], and we have Hmong and Karen staff members cooking the food so when you say “home-delivered meal,” we want it to taste like home, not just meaning it’s delivered to your home. We want it to taste like something your mom might’ve made you back in the day.