Marin To Consider Delivering Meals To At-Risk Seniors

MARIN COUNTY, CA — The Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider participating in Governor Gavin Newsom's "Great Plates Delivered" program that provides meals to older adults at high risk of contracting the COVID-19 disease.

If approved, the Board will appropriate $660,000 for the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Social Services to develop individual contracts with participating local restaurants to prepare and deliver the meals.

The Department of Health and Human Services is proposing a two-week pilot program between May 18-29 in the county with an option to extend the meals program through June 10.

The program will provide up to three meals a day, five days a week to the first 1,000 older adults who meet the state program's criteria.

Meal recipients must be 65 or older or 60-64 and at high-risk as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That includes people who are COVID-19 positive, have been exposed to the disease or people with an underlying health condition.

Participants in a one-person household must not earn more than $74,940 or more than $101,460 in a two-person household.

The Department of Health and Human Services will partner with Whistlestop to help implement the program. Whistlestop is an agency that provides home delivered meals and has an existing call center.

Restaurants interested in participating in the program should contact the state's Great Plates Delivered website for information about the state's criteria.

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to identify restaurants that are small businesses in the county, use locally-sourced meat and produce, are struggling to stay open and restaurants that meet the cultural needs of the participants in the Marin/Sausalito, Corte Madera/Larkspur/San Anselmo, San Rafael and Canal area, Novato Fairfax, San Geronimo Valley and West Marin areas.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the program will not increase the county's General Fund net costs, and the majority of the program's costs will be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state.

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