Running Head: RESEARCH PAPER 1
Meals on Wheels America
Stacey B. Greer
School of Business, Liberty University
BUSI 735-B01
Dr. Patrick Cline
May 17, 2020
RESEARCH PAPER 2
Abstract
Meals on Wheels America provide home-delivery meals to over 1 million senior citizens. In this
study, we will examine the following problems: what is causing the increase of senior citizens'
waitlist, the cost for safety supplies for volunteers that allows the safety of the seniors, and at
what capacity are Meals on Wheels America operating on currently?
Meals on Wheels America is a non-profit organization founded in Washington, D.C, on April 30,
1976. Their vision is an America in which all seniors live nourished lives with independence and
dignity. The Company's activities are majorly funded from corporate, government, and
significant grants, contributions from people, membership dues, and the annual conference.
Meals on Wheels America are uniquely positioned to reach the aging population through their
creative solution to ramp up food delivered quickly and safely (Roy and Payette, 2016). Since
March 1, 2020, the demand for Meals on Wheels America has nearly doubled, with 89% of the
program increasing in meal requests and a growing waitlist since COVID-19 of 26%. One
contributing factor to the rise in demand is the shelter-in-place orders across the country, this in
addition to the supply chain and workforce disruptions, makes delivering large amounts of meals
expensive and more challenging than before. Aside from funding, 63% of programs report that
getting safety supplies such as gloves, masks, etc. has also become challenging. Today's life
expectancy is at a record high of 79 years, with our nation's senior population growing
exponentially.
Keywords: issue, annual audit, COVID-19
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Company Description
Meals on Wheels America is the leading Company promoting more than five thousand
society-based programs across the State aspired to address hunger and senior isolation. This
system delivers services to every society in America, virtually with more than two million
volunteers and staff providing nutritious meals, safety checks, and friendly visits that enable
America's seniors to live nourished lives with dignity and independence. Generally, Meals on
Wheel's primary mission are to empower the local programs to facilitate the quality of life and
health of the seniors so that no individual is left isolated or hungry. The Company was formally
referred to as the National Association of Meals Providers, and later the name converted to
Meals on Wheels America in recent years.
A single objective has driven meals on Wheels since the first recognized United States
delivery done by a small team of Philadelphia citizens in the year nineteen fifty-four to support
our senior neighbors to facilitate their health and independence as they age. The organization
started as a compassionate idea established into one of the most effective and most significant
social movements in the United States of America. According to American citizens, nine out of
ten people admit that Meals on Wheels aids them in living independently (Meals on Wheels
America 2020). This suggests how the Company is successful in its endeavors. Additionally,
daily delivered foods help keep eight out of ten recipients who have fallen from falling again
previously.
A typical meal from this organization is intended to meet the dietary standards set by the
Older Americans Act Nutrition Program. To be precise, the meals are tailored to match cultural
preferences and medical needs. On the other hand, funding sources for the local meal programs
differ based on the requirements and resources of the society, consisting of state, local, private,
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and federal dollars. The success of Meals on Wheels depends wholly on this hybrid funding; the
private-public partnership needs to be facilitated to keep up with the increasing demand. At the
organization, they engage in studies to illustrate the effect and value of Meals on Wheels
programs that address isolation and hunger amongst many seniors countrywide.
This type of work facilitates the Company's commitment to ensure that local programs
have the resources and tools they require to meet the increasing demand for services in their
societies. The Meals on Wheels health initiative also brings together nationwide meals on
Wheels system in supporting the healthcare program's achievements (Meals On Wheels America
2020). The action accomplishes this task because of their unique and trusted capability to cross
the threshold into the seniors' homes, offering them an advantage to promote assessment and
deliver on the individualized requirements of special needs and high-risk beneficiaries. The
success of the Company is measured by safety, socialization, and nutrition.
To expound on this Meals on Wheels, America keeps seniors safe by aiding them to age
independently in their homes where they wish to be. They apply two strategies to help them by
preventing falls and facilitating home environments. At the State level, they work to prevent falls
by funding national research to improve scalable understanding approaches of fall prevention
programming at home. Additionally, they work to facilitate seniors' home environments by
collaborating with trusted companies like the Home Depot Foundation and partnering with other
non-profits organizations such as Rebuilding and Habitat for Humanity.
Similarly, the organization aims at keeping seniors healthy, as stated above, by
addressing the distinct nutritional requirements of America's vast, vulnerable population. They
can do this using two significant strategies; expanding choice and promoting continuous quality
of meals. They grow their choice for the weak by collaborating with food service vendors to
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investigate the healthcare department's need for medically tailored meals and secure culturally
appropriate meal options.
Problems
Since the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, Meals on Wheels has been hampered
heavily and encountered several issues:
Increase in Senior Citizen Waitlist
This has been one of the significant challenges since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Officials at the organization are struggling with an influx of seniors who are self-isolating due to
the COVID-19 outbreak (Hodgin, 2020). A study done by Meals on Wheels America concluded
that all local programs are encountering an increase in demand, statistically, out of five
programs, four admit that meal requests had doubled since March 1, 2020, when regulations over
Coronavirus about social distancing started. Since the reports have concluded, the organization is
designing shelter-in-order to keep the most vulnerable seniors safe amid the COVID-19
pandemic. They have established an enormous growth in the number of seniors who depend on
home-delivered meals as their primary source of food.
This, combined with workforce disruption and supply chain, make delivering a large number of
meals to an increasing number of the vulnerable, more expensive and problematic than ever
before. 89% of meal programs have witnessed a growth in meal requests; 79% admit the number
of new meal requests has at least doubled. They also report that they are serving 56% more meals
and 22% more seniors every week. Generally, programs say that waiting lists for meals which
were before the pandemic crisis have increased by 26%. As COVID-19 pandemic spreads, Meals
on Wheels administrators expect customer demand to grow even more.
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Cost for Safety Supplies
As much as service to the seniors is the primary goal, Meals on Wheels volunteers are
fearful of catching the virus. This caused has some of them to withdraw from the programs,
causing workforce shortage to the Company to meet the needs of the seniors. Approximately
63% of the programs assert that getting safety supplies such as masks, gloves, etc. is also a
significant challenge during this pandemic. As a non-profit organization, the reports submitted
from the managers implies that their budgets are stressed, and at the same time, they are required
to do more with that less budget.
As the growth in Coronavirus's numbers continues, the management of the organization admits
that the volunteer number will be profoundly impacted. The Company depends on hundreds of
volunteers to supply over a thousand meals per day throughout the counties. But the significant
challenge for this assertion is that most Meals on Wheels volunteers belong to the Coronavirus's
vulnerable population (Parker, 2020). This is because a lot of volunteers are in their seventies or
so, and are not feeling comfortable making deliveries. Since the organization cannot afford to
guarantee their health, it urges younger volunteers to join the programs.
The Capacity Currently
Due to the increase in waitlists, the meal requests demanded by the seniors increased
from five thousand a day to eight thousand in March 2020. Contrary, to the volunteer side, this
has not been the case as daily volunteers are catching fear that the virus is causing making them
withdraw from their regular deliveries (Parker, 2020). For instance, 17% of West Coast programs
are witnessing 900% more new requests per week. Currently, the Meals on Wheels' capacity is
operating on more than twenty thousand meals per day as opposed to the eight thousand in
March. Mesa County Meals on Wheels program keeps additional meals in donated freezers at a
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local center and serves meals curbside for pickups out of society at least two times every week to
help their seniors and increase their capacity.
Organization Theories and Concepts
Organizational theory is the set of connected definitions, concepts that explain the
behavior of groups or individuals or subgroups who associate together to perform the activities
required toward attaining a common goal. In other words, organizational theories study impacts
of social interactions between the people within the Company, along with their performance on
the Company as a whole. Additionally, it explores the effects of internal and external
surroundings, such as legal, political, and cultural, etc. on the organization. The organization is
the group of people who come together to perform sets of tasks to attain the common objectives.
An organization is characterized by synergy, which implies that a group can perform more
functions than a person working alone.
Concept of Organization Theory
An organization theory facilitates a general image framework of reference for explaining
behavioral patterns occurring in organizations. It also furnishes a technological base for
administrative actions for controlling, influencing, and predicting behavior to increase the
Company's efficiency. The theory also encompasses the study of functioning, performance, and
structure of organizations and the act of individuals and groups working in organizations.
Organizational theory is a macro evaluation of an organization: how the structure of the
organization is established to integrate people with the organization's goals.
Thus, in our paper, study the interactions between volunteers working together and their
overall impact, the performance of the organization will be well explained through various
organizational theories. The essential organizational methods include:
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1. Classical Theory
The Classical theory is one of the oldest traditional approaches, where its emphasis is on the
organization rather than the workers working in the organization. According to this theory, the
organization referred to as a machine, and the employees are the elements of the device. This
theory is established on an accounting approach; it emphasizes recognizing errors and correcting
them after they have been committed. As stated above, the argument is more concerned with the
output amount than the workers (Mahmood et al. 2017). The workers are considered to be
comparatively homogenous and unmodifiable. This means that labor is not distributed based on
varied kinds of tasks to be done in an organization.
This theory relatively assumes that employees are stable in terms of organizational change.
Also, it is imagined that the control and authority should only be vested with the central
management to attain an integrated and centralized system. Some authors of the Classical theory
majored on the technological aspect of the organization and how the workers can be utilized and
made more efficient. On the contrary, others stressed the structural element of an organization so
that workers collectively can be more robust. Thus, these perspectives of different authors
resulted in the establishment of two separate streams; scientific and administrative management
streams. The scientific management stream by Taylor was majorly concerned with the work to
be done at the operative stages. On the other hand, Henry Fayol stressed the process or
administrative management stream after studying the functions and principles of management.
2. Modern Organization Theory
This theory is of recent origin, developed in the early 1960s. It has attempted to overcome the
drawbacks of other previous methods. Also, it makes it easier for cooperation and coordination
in modern organizations. This theory comprises of aspects that describe interactions observed in
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association with the phenomenon. The leading role of contemporary philosophy is to explain as
well as a description of the event. This means that the modern organizational theory can help us
comprehend us; how the organization behaves towards internal and external change.
The modern theory has been established as a result of systematic research of organizations. It
can be applied in all types of organizations, thus more efficient. This theory deals mainly with
the organizational level phenomenon like planning and design, growth and change, structure,
politics, and development. This theory has two significant models; contingency and system
models and has typically deliberated on the complexities of cooperation and coordination in the
context of modern organizations. The system model studies the organizations in its totality. In
this model, there is an analysis of the mutually dependent variables. Both external and internal
variables are examined in evaluating the nature of the organization. The contingency model
implies that there is no organizational structure to suit all the changes and situations. It asserts
that the design, alongside managerial decisions, wholly depends on the job.
Meals on Wheels Company Using Theories
Focusing on our organizations, Meals on Wheels is encountering the Coronavirus hamper,
which has stressed their workforce. The Company is experiencing a large number of waitlists,
have a low capacity of a task force to deliver meals and experiencing funds shortcomings. This is
a type of situational impact resulted from external factors, i.e., COVID-19 pandemic. Of the two
models stated above, Classical theory cannot be used to tackle the problems reported basing on
the structure of the organization. This is because classical management theory establishes the
burden and pressure of work among the workers. Meals on Wheels Company depends on old
volunteers; thus, that kind of burden will not suit their wishes and end up withdrawing.
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Additionally, classical theory is based upon one of the most effective approaches, and it applies
to simple organizational structures. This means that it does not fit a complex organizational
structure. The Meal on Wheels Company is an example of a complex corporate structure, and the
problems it is encountering are situational. The stated challenges would be solved using modern
theory, explicitly using the contingency approach. The contemporary theory views an
organization as an open system. This implies that an organization continually interacts with its
environment to grow and sustain itself in the market. The case is similar in our organization as
volunteers regularly interact with the seniors to ensure that they live a nourished life.
The contingency approach puts a lot of stress on adapting and maintaining activities for
the system's survival and growth (Bradshaw, 2019). The companies still require supplying means
regardless of the pandemic being a nuisance to its operations. The management is looking for
ways to ensure the Company survives and even grows to cope with the COVID-19 epidemic.
The contingency approach focuses on the external determinants of the organization's structure
and behavior. In other words, the contingency approach spells out the interaction between an
organization and its surroundings and endeavors.
Conclusion and Recommendations
With an overpopulation of our seniors, Meals on Wheels urgently needs solutions to cub
the challenge of the growing waitlists and minimum workers. The first approach they could work
on is recruiting of younger volunteers to ease the burden to the usual old volunteers. As we are
all aware, one of the primary aims of Meals on Wheels Company is to ensure safety and promote
health. Since the old volunteers are highly vulnerable to catch the disease, the Company should
put plans on recruiting younger volunteers to make the supplies of the meals. Another advantage
of hiring younger lads is that they are fast and active; thus, it would increase efficiency. The
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present volunteers are mostly seniors, and as the spread of the virus continues, all seniors will be
forced to stay home. The Company needs to come up with a faster way of replacing them with
more reliable team players.
Another approach that the Company should make is to make sure the programs are
working to serve the additional seniors already on the waiting list first. This could be achieved
by changing the delivery system. For instance, rather than delivering one hot meal each day,
volunteers should provide seven meals each week. This will reduce the overexposure of these
seniors now and then because they are so vulnerable. Also, many senior centers are being closed
in America. Typically, these centers are always the meal to pick up points for the seniors. Thus,
the Company should develop replacement pickup areas. Similarly, many non-profit organizations
feel this pressure due to the spread of the virus and are looking for safer ways to counter this
global challenge.
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References
Bradshaw, P. (2019). A contingency approach to non-profit governance. Non-profit management
and leadership, 20(1), 61-81.
Hodgin, S, M (2020). As COVID-19 Spreads, Meals on Wheels Adapts To Serve Seniors.
Retrieved from https://wbhm.org/feature/2020/as-covid-19-spreads-meals-on-wheels-
adapts-to-serve-senior-citizens/
Mahmood, Z., Basharat, M., & Bashir, Z. (2017). Review of Classical Management Theories.
International journal of social sciences & education, 2(1).
Meals On Wheels America (2020). NEW SURVEY DATA: DEMAND ON MEALS ON
WHEELS NATIONAL NETWORK SWELLS AND WAIT LISTS GROW DUE TO
COVID-19 PANDEMIC. Retrieved from https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/learn-
more/national/press-room/news/2020/05/07/new-survey-data-demand-on-meals-on-
wheels-national-network-swells-and-wait-lists-grow-due-to-covid-19-pandemic
Parker, M (2020). Meals on Wheels needs volunteers to deliver meals to seniors during COVID-
19 crisis. Retrieved from https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/meals-on-wheels-needs-
volunteers-to-deliver-meals-to-seniors-during-covid-19-crisis/article_9bb0f766-b177-
5dae-890a-c8e4722f618a.html
Roy, M., & Payette, H. (2016). Meals-on-wheels improves energy and nutrient intake in a frail
free-living elderly population. Journal of Nutrition Health and Aging, 10(6), 554.
Simons, J (2020). Meals on Wheels and other programs for seniors adjust to respond to the
coronavirus threat. Retrieved from https://www.secondwavemedia.com/southwest-
michigan/features/Meals-on-Wheels-and-other-programs-for-seniors-adjust-to-respond-
to-the-coronavirus-thre-032620.aspx
