• Economy, diet rules curb Meals on Wheels programs

    U.S. Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion

    The government issued a consumer brochure spelling out what the new guidelines mean. Click the cover for a full pdf version.

    By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

    Federal guidelines meant to help Americans eat healthier foods are straining Meals on Wheels and other nonprofits already laboring to make sure the elderly get enough to eat at all.

    Lanakila Meals on Wheels in Honolulu, Hawaii, already has a waiting list of 90 people, most of them elderly, who have asked for food the organization can't afford to provide.

    The program can always use more volunteers, but what it really needs now is money.

    "We're looking for $120,000 just to maintain our existing programs and another $170,000 to meet the needs of the 90 people who are on our wait list," Lyn Moku, the program's director, told NBC station KHNL of Honolulu.

    "It's a real time of uncertainty," Moku said, because "everyone is having a hard time just with the way the economy is and unemployment."

    Some Meals on Wheels programs in the U.S. support themselves solely through donations and fundraisers, but many — like Lanakila Meals on Wheels — also rely on government funding. The Hawaii program says it gets about 60 percent of its funding from government sources.

    That government funding is also in question, for Lanakila Meals on Wheels and many other local chapters of the national nonprofit.

    The Health Trust, a charitable foundation in Campbell, Calif., reported that it has lost more $100,000 for its Meals on Wheels program. Most of that loss has come from government sources, and small corporate sponsorships haven't made up the difference.

    "It's tough. Times are very, very tough," said Enid A. Borden, president and chief executive of the Meals on Wheels Association of America.

    Last week, Meals on Wheels volunteers abandoned the traditional delivery of hot Thanksgiving meals to homes across Silicon Valley in Northern California. Instead, needy individuals — most of them elderly — received a frozen meal two days in advance that they had to thaw and heat themselves, NBC station KTVU of San Francisco/Oakland reported.

    Cut the salt; crunch the veggies
    It's not just the economy that's squeezing government outlays for community programs in general. Some are also being restricted by new federal nutrition guidelines that set standards for assistance programs.

    That means that when government agencies sit down to hand out community service grants, they have to consider the new guidelines when it comes to food programs like school lunches and Meals on Wheels.

    The guidelines drew a lot of attention for calling for a drastic reduction in salt consumption, especially among those 51 and older. But they also significantly changed the recommended ratio of proteins to fresh fruits and vegetables — putting much more emphasis on the latter.

    • Dietary Guidelines for Americans (.pdf)

    That requires new menus, new storage facilities to keep all that produce fresh and new ways to cook and deliver meals.

    Meeting the new requirements could be cost-prohibitive for Meals on Wheels in Bailey County, Texas, which could lose its funding from the regional association of governments, NBC station KCBD of Lubbock reported.

    Meals on Wheels for Lubbock itself isn't affected, said Lisa Gilliland, the program's assistant director, because it relies solely on donations and fundraisers. But in Bailey County, northwest of the city, and in many other areas across the country, funding could be at risk because "most of the smaller programs are government funded," she said.

    Borden told msnbc.com she is confident that Meals on Wheels will figure out a way to keep handing out the 1.7 million meals it delivers every day.

    "There are always things that are going to happen," she acknowledged. "We are always impacted when the price of anything goes up."

    But "one of the things I know is that our program will do whatever it needs to do to feed those seniors who are hungry," she said.

    "We are a resilient organization."

    Alex Johnson is a news and technology reporter for msnbc.com. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

  • Guide helps navigate fishy dishes

    AP file

    Shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico and other seafood on display at the Hapuku Fish Shop in Oakland, Calif. on Aug. 17.

    What's on the seafood menu today?

    In addition to the omega-3 proteins we seek, there is an array of unsavory and unintentional side dishes that could come with sea creatures: heavy metals, salmonella and banned pesticides or hormones. Since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, food safety experts have focused on the danger of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — PAHs — in seafood from that area. And there is guilt: Eating some fish contributes to the problem of overfishing endangered species, while eating others could harm fragile ecosystems or cultures in other ways.

    To help consumers make choices that are environmentally friendly and healthy, the advocacy group Food and Water Watch on Wednesday published the National Smart Seafood Guide 2010 that weighs nutritional and environmental considerations for eating 100 types of seafood — and may help take some of the anxiety out of choosing a fish dish.

    "The guide comes at a critical time. We've been fielding countless questions from consumers on seafood safety after the Gulf oil spill," said Marianne Cufone, Food & Water Watch's fish program director. "Unfortunately, because of the spill, many people are considering imported seafood as a safer alternative to domestic. Often, it's not."

    Failed fish
    Indeed, Food and Water Watch named imported coastal farmed shrimp the worst of the worst on its "Dirty Dozen" list of seafood products that it says fail health and sustainability measures. Imported shrimp, much of it farmed in Asia, may be tainted with "antibiotic, pesticide or bacterial residues" that are not allowed in better-regulated markets.

    Also on the guide's buyer-beware list are caviar from sturgeon that are endangered by poaching, overfishing, river damming and pollution; shark and Chilean seabass because of a tendency to have high mercury levels; and Atlantic and farmed salmon, because they introduce hazards to natural salmon populations.

    As for the safety of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, the guide says to keep watching for Food and Drug Administration updates amid ongoing testing. But Gulf coast commercial fishermen will likely be grateful for the perspective the guide offers on seafood safety. As they are quick to point out, their seafood — about 2 percent of the total in the U.S. market — is getting far more attention than imported seafood products. There are at least three federal agencies and a gaggle of state agencies and other health groups examining Gulf seafood and waters, and most are giving the products a clean bill of health.

    "We are so much more scrutinized right now than any other food or fish coming into this country," said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. His organization is scrambling to protect the reputation of Gulf fisheries products since the broken Deepwater Horizon dumped millions of gallons of oil into the water. "In spite of all these fears that are in place, there haven't been any illnesses."