Research & Practice
Measuring Nutrition Risk Changes of Meals on Wheels & Community Dining Clients in the Greater Seattle Area
Sound Generations partners with dozens of community-based organizations and governmental entities strives to provide older adults in King County and the Greater Seattle area with accessible and inclusive services to support their changing needs.
This project focused on Sound Generation’s food and nutrition-related programs: Meals on Wheels and Community Dining. Older adults can face numerous issues that impact their ability to nourish themselves adequately, including food insecurity, limited mobility, access to transportation, injuries and illnesses, and chronic health conditions. Sound Generations’ Meals on Wheels program addresses this by delivering frozen prepared meals to homebound seniors. Meanwhile, Community Dining focuses on providing older adults with free group dining experiences to help foster community connection. The student analyzing data routinely collected by both programs to measure changes in participants’ nutrition risk and was then able to identify and make recommendations for program improvement and expansion. The student also identified potential grants that could help Sound Generations fund such changes and reviewed available literature to create well-worded questions on evaluating the cultural relevancy of meals.
Materials Available
Project Type(s): MPH Practicum, PH Concentration Poster
Author(s): Vanessa Tran
Program(s): Master of Public Health, RDN Training
Year: 2026
Adviser(s):