Volume 3, Issue 6

News From the Nutrition and Aging

Resource Center

ican! Modules Have Launched!

The Nutrition and Aging Resource Center launched ican! (Instructional Campus on Aging Nutrition), a series of interactive training modules that includes information on the Older Americans Act, partnerships, operating a nutrition services program, menu planning, diversifying funding, and more.

The target audience is staff and volunteers of congregate and home delivered meal programs, Area Agencies on Aging (AAA), local services providers, State Units on Aging, Registered Dietitians, and others who interact with older adults living in the community. Participants receive a certificate of completion after each module is completed.

To sign up and participate in the course, please visit https://acl.gov/senior-nutrition/ican

Public Health Emergency (PHE) Expiration Considerations for Title III-C Senior Nutrition Programs

Check out our resource that helps explain what the expiration of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency means for aging nutrition programs.

Meal Site Metamorphosis - Complete Toolkit

Is your meal site institutional or innovative? Take a deeper dive into what a congregate meal site says to your guests. We know that the setting in which guests eat their meals can make or break the overall experience and can be a reason why guests participate or not. Look at recent resources to take a meal site from "drab" to "fab!"

Network Spotlight

Meet Tammy Miller

Meet Tammy Miller, Executive Director with Windy Hill on the Campus. Learn more about Tammy's work with congregate and home delivered meals and the impact that partnerships has had on providing these services. Check it out.

From the Administration for Community Living

Loneliness Awareness Week Campaign and Commit to Connect Webinar

Social isolation and loneliness can have devastating impacts on well-being. During Loneliness Awareness Week (June 12-18) and beyond, join ACL and its aging and disability networks in promoting meaningful social connection as an essential part of maintaining good mental and physical health.

See additional information.

Nutrition and Aging News From the Network

State of Today's Senior Centers: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities

The Modernizing Senior Centers Resource Center for Professionals recently released its The State of Today's Senior Centers: Successes, Challenges, and Opportunities report. The report delves into topics such as the history of senior centers, senior center modernization, and results of the senior center study.

Aging in Rural Areas: an important focus for addressing malnutrition and health equity

This blog by Suzanne Fleming, MS, RDN, LD, Clinical Dietitian at McPherson Hospital, and Bob Blancato, MPA, National Coordinator at Defeat Malnutrition Today, touches on challenges faced by Americans aging in rural areas. These older adults are at increased nutrition risk. The article explores some of the challenges as well as initiatives and resources for addressing malnutrition and health equity for rural populations.

Alarm Raised by U.S. Surgeon General about the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation

In May, United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation and lack of connection. The advisory describes the health consequences of loneliness, isolation and lack of connection and lays out a framework for a National Strategy to Advance Social Connection, which has never been implemented before in the United States. It details recommendations that individuals, governments, workplaces, health systems, and community organizations can take to increase connection in and improve the health of lives in communities and across the country.

This project was supported in part by grant number 90PPNU0002 from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201. Grantees undertaking projects with government sponsorship are encouraged to express freely their findings and conclusions. Points of view or opinions do not, therefore, necessarily represent official ACL policy.