Farm-fresh deliveries for seniors

One year in, a collaboration between Meals On Wheels Atlanta and Peachtree Road Farmers Market brings new meaning to local

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Chef Nick Leahy of Saltyard recounts one of the first times he helped with a homebound senior meal delivery. The mere sight of fresh peaches elicited a big smile and an even bigger conversation about just how good a fresh Georgia peach is and how much the woman missed eating them. It was “a bunch of local perspective delivered quickly,” Leahy says. “There is an obvious geographic component with local, but it’s more about the relationship you build with people.”



The word “local,” dotted all over restaurant menus and overused by feel-good marketing campaigns, has become little more than a buzzword these days. But for exactly a year now, Peachtree Road Farmers Market has been revealing what local really means through a collaboration with Meals On Wheels Atlanta (MOWA).

No value assignedTo Kate Grinalds, senior director of development at MOWA, local means “Georgia, the Atlanta area.” She knows one in six Atlanta-area seniors struggles with hunger, and she works to help realize MOWA’s vision: that no senior is hungry, cold, or forgotten. MOWA delivers 200,000 nourishing meals each year, Tuesday through Saturday. “We are all about providing healthy food for our seniors,” she says. “This collaboration is a way to also bring local, farm-fresh food to them.” Hot meals fill rigorous nutritional standards, but many seniors still lack access to a variety of locally grown fruits and vegetables. Collaborating with the Peachtree Road Farmers Market (PRFM) fills the void.

The alliance is the brainchild of board member Leahy, who often worked pop-ups and demos at PRFM. Being a part of both organizations, he brought the idea of utilizing leftover produce for the MOWA program to market director Lauren Carey, who then took it to MOWA’s executive director at the time. Within two weeks, things were in motion. “Chef Nick has been amazing, bringing our mission to the restaurant/foodie scene in Atlanta,” Grinalds says. “He is so creative and supportive of our mission. He really gets it.”

No value assignedEach week around 11:40 a.m., MOWA’s refrigerated van pulls into the market with $250 that either comes from the organization itself or is generated by local chef pop-ups. Leahy and fellow board member Tom McGee always donate their proceeds. Carey and MOWA’s fleet coordinator, Osner “Oz” Jean, stop one by one at each stall to see what’s left and what vendors are willing to sell at a reduced rate. In all, they gather 120-170 pounds of fruits and veggies, with most farmers either donating their produce directly or selling it at a drastically reduced price. “Some of the farmers had their families get Meals on Wheels, so this feels full circle to them,” Carey says.

Jean has picked up every delivery since day one and loves working with the program because he gets the chance to meet both the farmers and recipients. “I really love to see the expression of joy on each senior’s face when they receive their fresh veggies,” he says. Jean’s colleagues call him the heart of the operation. “Everyone is happy to see him,” Leahy says. Carey calls him a teddy bear. “He is so good at his core; you can’t help but smile and be happier around him. He is a perfect fit for the organization. He carries the program from end to end.”

No value assignedMichael McMullan is one of the farmers who often donate produce to the MOWA program. Each Friday, he picks greens from McMullan Family Farm in Hartwell, Georgia, a working farm since 1865. At 5 a.m. on Saturday, he drives to PRFM, and after a day’s work, McMullan sells or donates his leftover produce at a reduced rate to MOWA. Just a couple days later, they are on the table of a local senior.

Jean and Carey try to buy an assortment of ready-to-eat foods that are senior-friendly — easy to eat raw or relatively simple to process, like potatoes, greens, squash, and fruit. Once selected, the produce is transported to a refrigerated warehouse for the remainder of the weekend, and by Monday, it’s in the MOWA kitchen ready to be distributed to the homes of frail, homebound, and/or low-income seniors over the age of 60. Instead of being incorporated into the meal program, the fruits and veggies supplement the meals. “Because we don’t know what we will get, it would be really hard to make adjustments to pre-planned meals,” Grinalds explains.

No value assignedQualified nutritionists with a litany of dietary restrictions in mind design MOWA dinners. Regular meals are high in calories and protein. For some seniors, these are their only meals. Selections fit those who need low sodium, no pork, or no fish and those who are diabetic, vegetarian, or unable to chew tough foods.

Leahy helped deliver meals a few times and said it was very grounding. “I live in Candler Park,” he says. “It sort of amazes me how close we are to people in great need but also how grateful the seniors are — gracious, thankful, excited by vegetables. A bunch of perspective is delivered quickly.”

No value assignedCarey thinks what’s so special about this program is that there is no downside. “We eliminate food waste, we support local farmers, and we feed seniors in need with fresh vegetables that they would otherwise not get to see,” she explains. “I couldn’t be prouder of the work that PRFM and MOWA are doing together, and I hope this project takes hold nationwide.”

This fresh bonus fills the gap in a nutritious and empowering way. Seniors can often select their choice of vegetables and prepare them with their own spices and processes, the way they remember cooking food. It also gives them a chance to gain new knowledge. “I’ve learned new ways to cook with vegetables I was not familiar with,” one recipient wrote to MOWA. “This gave me more time with my grandkids in the kitchen...and that means they ate their vegetables!”

No value assignedChef Zeb Stevenson of Watershed on Peachtree helps with fundraising at Sunday Suppers, MOWA’s third biggest fundraiser, where chefs donate time and food for a dinner in a donor’s home. He has also helped deliver meals. “The experience was so much more than I expected,” he says. “To see how grateful the recipients were was very humbling. As chefs, we often get sucked into focusing on the people who have the means to eat in our restaurants and forget that there are far more who fall outside of that group. It put things into perspective for me in a very real way.”

The collaboration between MOWA and PRFM does much more than fill a void in home delivered meals. It connects the community, proving that the true definition of local goes beyond simply indicating where food is grown. It reduces food waste and supports both farmers and the local economy. It allows farmers to spend more time on the farm instead of trying to sell leftover food to restaurants. It adds fresh, local flavor to a homebound senior’s diet, empowers them, and halts social isolation. As Mother Teresa once said, “Love begins by taking care of the closest ones — the ones at home.” Peaches can be love.


The Food Issue