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Charles City Meals on Wheels will continue as Apple Valley takes over

The Floyd County Medical Center and Apple Valley Assisted Living announced Wednesday that Apple Valley will be taking over meal preparation for the Meals on Wheels program in Charles City. Pictured are, from left, FCMC Administrator Rod Nordeng; Stacy Jensen, Apple Valley resident services director; Terri Cosselman, Apple Valley administrator; Carol Johnson, FCMC dietary manager and Meals on Wheels board member; Elaine Coblentz, Apple Valley nurse manager; Dennis Niezwaag, Meals on Wheels board chairman; and Lori Taylor, Apple Valley cook. Press photo by Bob Steenson
The Floyd County Medical Center and Apple Valley Assisted Living announced Wednesday that Apple Valley will be taking over meal preparation for the Meals on Wheels program in Charles City. Pictured are, from left, FCMC Administrator Rod Nordeng; Stacy Jensen, Apple Valley resident services director; Terri Cosselman, Apple Valley administrator; Carol Johnson, FCMC dietary manager and Meals on Wheels board member; Elaine Coblentz, Apple Valley nurse manager; Dennis Niezwaag, Meals on Wheels board chairman; and Lori Taylor, Apple Valley cook. Press photo by Bob Steenson
By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

Meals on Wheels will continue in Charles City, with Apple Valley Assisted Living taking over the cooking, it was announced Wednesday afternoon.

Apple Valley will start preparing the meals and offering them Monday through Friday beginning Jan. 7. People who have come to rely on the meals should notice relatively few changes in the service, the announcement said.

The future of the program came into question in September when the Floyd County Medical Center announced it could no longer continue providing the meals because of the impact the program was having on its Medicare reimbursements.

FCMC had been involved in the program since 1987 and has continued to prepare the meals while the hospital and the Meals on Wheels board of directors looked for an organization to take over.

Terri Cosselman, the Apple Valley administrator, told the Press her organization had reached out to the Meals on Wheels board about helping with the meals deliveries, which relies on volunteers, and Dennis Niezwaag, board chairman, asked if they’d like to do more than volunteer to drive.

“I was just going around the community asking potential meal providers if they might be interested. When I got to Terri she was excited about the opportunity,” said Niezwaag.

Carol Johnson, the Medical Center dietary manager and a Meals on Wheels board member, said other groups had expressed interest, but none of them had worked out. One of the requirements is that the meal provider have an inspected and licensed commercial kitchen.

Cosselman said, “You know, a lot of our residents have driven for the Meals on Wheels program. So they are elated that we are going to continue the meals — very, very happy. They were very worried about people in the community.

“Our biggest concern was we wanted to do it right,” she said. “We wanted to meet the expectations and not disappoint, because the hospital set a bar pretty high of how the program is.”

Cosselman said Apple Valley management and staff spent a lot of time talking about the prospects of taking over the meal preparation.

“But it’s just, how do you not get behind a program like this?” she said. 

Meals on Wheels delivers about 30 to 50 meals a day, Monday through Friday, to people who have a difficult time preparing meals or getting out of their homes.

“Our major goal is to be part of helping people remain in their homes as long as is practical or possible, if that’s what they want,” said Niezwaag. “We certainly appreciate the hospital’s many years providing meals.”

There will be a few small changes in the program.

The price is going up slightly, to $6 per meal, with reduced prices for those who meet income guidelines.

But the board typically looks at prices at the end of the year, and looks at food and other supply costs, Niezwaag said. The price change will take effect Jan. 2 and would have happened whether or not the provider was changing at about the same time.

Johnson said the cost is similar to or below programs in other communities, except for those that receive a government subsidy or grants.

Cosselman said Apple Valley buys most of its food, including meats, fruits and vegetables, from local grocery stores, and will continue to do so.

One change is that Apple Valley will not be able to provide custom “therapeutic” diets, such as meals with soft or pureed food or meeting restrictions such as sodium or carbohydrate limits, that the hospital kitchen was able to do.

The meals provided for Meals on Wheels will be essentially the same lunch that is being prepared for Apple Valley residents that day, said Lori Taylor, one of the Apple Valley cooks.

The main difference for the volunteer drivers will be where they pick up the food.

When the hospital announced in the fall that it needed to find another organization to prepare the meals, it promised to work with that group to provide a smooth transition.

Rod Nordeng, Floyd County Medical Center administrator, said that although the Meals on Wheels program itself runs at about break-even, it had cost the county hospital more than $1.5 million in lost Medicare reimbursements from 2010 through 2017, because of the way Medicare calculates expenses for critical access hospitals such as the medical center.

“It’s just the way cost reports with Medicare work, otherwise we’d continue to do it,” Nordeng said. “We did it as long as we could, but with changes in the state Medicaid program and how that’s hit us, we just need to make sure that we’re spending the resources prudently.

“We wanted to be transparent with everyone and start that community dialog, and I think, as Dennis noted, we’re so appreciative of Apple Valley. That’s great,” Nordeng said.

Niezwaag said it goes both ways.

“We all live in the community,” he said. “We’re as concerned about keeping our hospital going and solvent as anyone.”

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