WORKSHOP ITEM Robert Therres, Public Services Manager
Title
EMERGENCY FOOD SERVICE AT MARY ANN YOUNG CENTER
Background
When the Mary Ann Young Center (MAYC) was closed to the public in March, the city continued to provide daily lunches to 20 to 23 regular diners because of concerns it was their only access to nutritious meals. To accomplish this, the city arranged with the National Sports Center (NSC) to provide daily lunches after our current provider, Volunteers of America (VOA), could not guarantee that they could provide the lunches. MAYC staff picks up and distributes the lunches to the daily diners at the MAYC through a drive-up service.
Staff does not have any written criteria or income verification guidelines for those to whom the city provides emergency meals. Staff made the determination based on their knowledge of the diners who they have served over the years. They identified those who they believed would not get a nutritious meal if not for this emergency food service. Of the 30 diners who have received emergency meals from MAYC, 13 of them are not residents of Blaine.
It is important to note that this discussion applies only to the emergency food service currently being provided. The congregate dining will be discussed with council when more information is available about the ability to re-open the MAYC and provide daily congregate dining.
Due to the need to plan and pre-order food, the city made a commitment to NSC to provide this service through July 3, 2020 and city Staff is looking for council direction on how to proceed after July 3.
Options include:
1. Have meals provided by VOA - The VOA has been providing the daily lunches at the MAYC for over 35 years. VOA provides the food and a food handler and the City provides a supplement for the food handler that equals $65.00 per week. Diners are asked to contribute $4.00 per meal which goes to VOA.
We have historically have had issues with the reliability/turnover of the VOA food handlers and on many occasions MAYC staff has actually performed the food handling duties. When the VOA food handler is unable to report to work, they do not have an ability to provide another food handler. The most recent food handler resigned several months ago; VOA had difficulty recruiting a new food handler, so the City worked with VOA to develop the supplement option. It was hoped that the additional pay would help with recruiting and retaining a reliable person in the position. However, this was not implemented as the closure of MAYC occurred just prior to the new food handler starting in the position.
2. Have meals provided by NSC - The NSC was able to guarantee the emergency meals and will continue to do so. They charge the city $4.82 per meal, which includes tax. MAYC still asks diners to contribute $4.00 per meal. For the seven week period from 2/23 to 5/8 this arrangement has cost the City $777.03 or $111.00 per week. Payment records indicate that we are getting the full $4.00 suggested price from the diners.
3. Discontinue emergency food service and move diners to an alternate program - Originally the emergency food service was started because staff had identified these diners as people in need of assistance and no alternate program was immediately identified. Since then Meals on Wheels has been identified as a program that is similar to our current emergency food service.
The cost of Meals on Wheels $5.95 per meal and the meal is dropped off at the diners’ home. Meals on Wheels still has the capacity to accept more customers. The $5.95 is paid by the diner receiving the service. This would eliminate the city’s cost to provide emergency food service.
Below is a summary of options:
|
Option |
Diner Cost |
City Cost |
Other Considerations |
|
VOA |
$4.00 per meal |
$65.00 per week |
Reliability of food handler |
|
NSC |
$4.00 per meal |
$111.00 per week |
Higher cost to city |
|
Meals on Wheels |
$5.95 |
$0 |
Not all diners may find or |
|
|
|
|
want alternate program; |
|
|
|
|
higher cost to customers |
The Finance Department has commented that the city’s portion of the cost to serve the emergency meals is eligible to be reimbursed by Federal COVID-19 funds.
Recommendation
Provide feedback on proceeding with emergency food service at the Mary Ann Young Center (MAYC) after July 3.