Meals on Wheels for Western New York

In a state as large as New York, a steady stream of smart, innovative work is coming from NYHealth grantees and non-grantees alike that is relevant to NYHealth’s priority areas of Building Healthy Communities and Empowering Health Care Consumers and its focus area on Veterans’ Health. These organizations should be elevating their work and informing key stakeholders at regional, statewide, and national conferences, meetings, and other convenings. Yet, because of a lack of resources, they are often unable to do so. To address this issue, NYHealth is awarding grants through its Sponsoring Conference Participation in Support of Healthy Communities, Consumer Empowerment, and Veterans’ Health Request for Proposals (RFP). Through this RFP, NYHealth is sponsoring low-resource organizations to attend and present at local, State, and national conferences related to these areas. In 2018, NYHealth awarded Meals on Wheels for Western New York a grant to participate in this initiative as part of its efforts to build healthy communities.

Under this grant, Meals on Wheels for Western New York sent two staff members to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo, a conference for dietetics professionals. Conference sessions focused on nutrition guidelines and counseling for the chronic diseases faced by many of Meals on Wheels’ clients, such as cancer, renal disease, and diabetes. The majority of Meals on Wheels’ clients have at least one chronic illness in which diet plays a role in treatment of the disease and prevention of developing co-morbidities. The sessions on nutrition gave Meals on Wheels insight into the most effective way to counsel its elderly clients with these chronic illnesses. The conference allowed Meals on Wheels to network with other professionals in this field, share ideas and best practices, and stay up to date with current and emerging trends in nutrition and dietetics.

View a complete list of conference participation grantees