Benchmarking a Home-Delivered Meal Program's Annual Satisfaction Survey: A Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA) Initiative in Philadelphia.

The Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance (MANNA) is a community-based organization providing home-delivered meals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to individuals at acute nutritional risk and experiencing a life-threatening illness, independent of age or income. The challenge MANNA faces, like other community-based organizations, is to demonstrate effective services by benchmarking with other organizations. This article reports how MANNA benchmarked results of their annual satisfaction survey against the 2013 National Survey of Older Americans Act Program. Overall, MANNA recipients were more often satisfied with the taste and variety of food, and more MANNA recipients rated the program as excellent. However, more MANNA recipients reported not having enough money to buy food, skipping meals because of money, needing to choose between food and medications or food and utilities. MANNA is using these findings as an impetus to better understand the needs of their clients, especially as they transition off the meal program, and to identify additional resources to support transitional programming.

Examining health care costs among MANNA clients and a comparison group.

Chronically ill populations have a strong need for quality public health nutrition services to aid in disease management and improve health outcomes. Evidence suggests that neglecting the importance of adequate nutrition in chronically ill patients has far-reaching implications on the health status of the individual and the health care costs. Research is currently lacking a focus on this topic. This pilot study done through the nonprofit organization MANNA (Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance), which serves the greater Philadelphia area, explored the health care expenditures of 65 MANNA clients over time in comparison with a similar group of Medicaid patients who did not receive MANNA services. Health care expenditures were examined before and after clients began receiving services. The study found that the mean monthly health care costs decreased for three consecutive months after initiation of MANNA services. Other health care cost-related factors, such as inpatient costs, length of stay, and number of hospital admissions also displayed a downward trend. These results help show the significance of medical nutrition therapy and home-delivered meal services on overall health care.