City Limits: High Risk Seen in City’s Proposed System for Feeding Seniors

High Risk Seen in City’s Proposed System for Feeding Seniors | March 2, 2020: Advocates for NYC’s seniors have long complained that the city’s funding for meals has been lacking. The Department for the Aging, which is now seeking vendors for its home-delivered meal program, is now being criticized by providers and some advocates for adding an array of new requirements to its program without additional funding.

A January 22nd request for proposals (RFP) from the Department for the Aging (DFTA) for its home-delivered meal program was rated as a high risk to contractors by the Human Services Council, a non-profit trade association for non-governmental social-services entities. The Human Services Council gave the RFP a rating of 75 out of 100, with 100 being the riskiest.

“I think the real concern about this is the funding,” Michelle Jackson, acting executive director of the HSC told City Limits. The contract for the home-delivered meals program would run for three years starting July 1 and would fund meals at a reimbursement rate of $9.58 a meal.

“Providers in the city have clearly communicated to the Department for the Aging in recent years that we are losing money providing this service,” says Ben Thomases, executive director of Queens Community House, a non-profit that has contracted with the city’s home-delivered meals program since 2013, serving community districts that intersect with Forest Hills, Corona and Rego Park.

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