Adobe "Adopts a Route" to Prevent Malnutrition and Social Isolation Among Homebound Adults

A first-time Adobe Community Investment Partner in 2003, the Health Trust Meals on Wheels program of Silicon Valley delivers hot, nutritious meals daily-more than 83,000 each year-to approximately 300 frail elderly and disabled people in Santa Clara County so that they can remain independent in their homes. It is the only program in the county serving homebound disabled adults.

Meals on Wheels goes beyond providing healthy meals. Committed to preventing social isolation as well as malnutrition, the organization dispatches trained, mostly volunteer deliverers who perform daily wellness checks, assure that the premises are safe, and talk with clients. For many, this visit is their only social contact of the day. Other free programs include case-management services that help clients access community resources and financial support, in-home blood pressure screening by nursing volunteers, audio book delivery to the visually and learning impaired, home delivery of groceries, and pen-pal relationships with fifth-graders at San Jose's Horace Mann Elementary School.

All meals meet individual dietary and medical requirements and are individually and professionally prepared at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose and Saint Louise Regional Hospital in Gilroy. Adobe's 2003 grant of US$25,000 "adopted a route" in downtown San Jose, providing 3,226 hot meals to 16 low-income clients in the organization's most under-served community.

Surveys show that 62 percent of Meals on Wheels clients receive one-half or more of their daily food intake from one home-delivered meal, and 25 percent lack enough money or food stamps to buy groceries. Meanwhile, 97 percent feel that the program helps them remain independent in their home.
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