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STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR SENIOR NUTRITION PROGRAMS SEEKING TO WORK WITH 

FOOD RETAILERS (RESTAURANTS AND GROCERY STORES-FOR MEALS)

Senior nutrition programs (SNPs) are uniquely positioned to adapt, ideate, and succeed in engaging 

traditional and untraditional partners to meet the evolving nutrition needs of the older adults that 

they serve. SNPs continue to engage with older adults in need, serve new audiences, strive to 

maintain competitiveness, and offer increased meal choice to their clients. Partnering with food 

retailers proves an important opportunity to leverage the thousands of pounds of surplus 

perishable foods available within local food systems, available to be turned into meals for senior 

nutrition program participants.

Collaborations with food retailers can serve as primary or secondary senior nutrition contracts as 

you work to contend with the increased demand for meals on your community or increasing 

demand for additional meal types (i.e., breakfast or dinner meals). It may also be beneficial to lay the

groundwork for contractual relationships with local restaurants and/or grocery food stores as part of 

your organization’s emergency preparedness efforts.

There is a longstanding tradition of SNP leaders making great strides in this area. However, for SNPs

that have not engaged in such collaborations in the past, the prospect of launching a new initiative 

might be daunting. Being familiar with the Older Americans Act (OAA) Nutrition Program and it’s 

requirements, is essential to develop and guide a partnership with a food retailer. Similarly, food 

retailers like grocery stores and restaurants, may not be familiar with the Older Americans Act 

Nutrition Program and the requirements for this program. Information on the Older Americans Act

is readily available online.

Since 2017, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) has funded a cadre of SNPs across the

country to develop and field inventive solutions to key business challenges for senior nutrition 

programs. Two recipients of the Innovations in Nutrition Programs and Services Grants from ACL 

were invited to share learnings from their funded projects that involved local restaurants and 

grocery stores.

ABOUT THE GRANTEES

• The Heritage Area on Agency has been a department of Kirkwood Community College since 

1973 and was designated by the Iowa Department on Aging to serve Benton, Cedar, Iowa, 

Johnson, Jones, Linn, and Washington counties. Heritage serves people aged 60 and above as 

well as their families, communities, and governments. In addition, The Heritage Agency serves 

as an Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) serving adults 18 years of age and older with 

a disability through advocacy and options counseling.
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• The Erie County Department of Senior Services was created in 1971 and subsequently 

designated an Area Agency on Aging under Title III of the OAA. The primary responsibilities

which the Department has under the OAA, and New York State Community Services for the 

Elderly Programs focus on planning, advocacy, and coordination activities.

ABOUT THEIR INNOVATION PROJECTS

• 2017, Collaborating with Community Partners on a Congregate Meal Delivery Model in Iowa

Heritage Area Agency on Aging sought to develop an innovative, replicable service delivery 

model for congregate meals titled “Encore Café.” This café concept was designed to encourage 

older adults to participate in congregate meal programs. In particular, the project aimed to 

attract the younger sub-population of older adults called “Baby Boomers” who had a smaller 

percentage of participation in recent years.

• 2018, Increasing Choice Through a Flexible, Technology-Driven Meal Program in New York

Erie County Department of Senior Services collaborated with the Albany County Department 

for Aging added a technology driven congregate dining program including a restaurant dining 

program to current service models.

To learn more about these projects and others, visit: the Innovations Models in Nutrition 

Programs and Services.

STEP BY STEP GUIDE

Step 1: Initiate a strategic planning process

Part 1: Get your planning team together:

• Internal Champions (for example): program managers, contract managers, relationship 

managers, registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), or other individual with comparable 

nutrition expertise, senior leadership, food service managers

• External Champions (recommended): Persons who can support your efforts, facilitate 

networking, identify resources, potential partners, local restaurant association 

representatives, local grocery store leadership, Chambers of Commerce members, 

consumers from existing programs, other community service providers such as home 

health, government or public, senior-focused entities, etc.

Part 2: Identify the expertise your team needs:

• Restaurant/grocery management/food service/catering experience;

• In-depth understanding of the OAA Nutrition Program; 

• Knowledge of public health, food safety, emergency preparedness;

• Knowledge of the local restaurant and food retail landscape;

• Experience partnering with [a diversity of] community leaders and community-based 

organizations;

• Marketing/communications and outreach expertise.
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Part 3: Host a strategy session with your team

• Host a strategy session with your team to determine the goals and objectives of your 

anticipated partnership – what product, programmatic, business and pricing goals to you have 

for your anticipated collaboration? 

• Use the Quick Guide to Working with Restaurants and Grocery Stores to introduce the 

project to the planning team

Part 4: Establish your target population:

• Evaluate local data to determine demographic profile, geographic location, nutrition needs, 

aging services usage, etc. of target population. 

• Utilize previous information on customer preferences (client satisfaction, waste studies, 

etc.).

• Identify target population(s) of interest for this initiative including low-income/minority 

populations, persons residing in rural settings, and persons with low English 

proficiency/immigrants/refugees, as well as persons at risk of institutional care. 

• Visit the Nutrition and Aging Resource Center Cultural Competency web page for resources on 

approaches and opportunities to serve diverse populations. 

Step 2: Conduct an environmental scan

• Identify available restaurants; meals that are served locally, understand regional tastes, food

customs, local expectations around portion sizes; identify grocery stores with kitchens/food 

service operations. 

• Engage grocery stores or restaurants with nutrition professionals such as a registered 

dietitian or individual of comparable expertise offer additional benefits.

• Identify a range of reasonable meal costs across your local community. Review published 

menus and call local food retailers to understand the range of these costs.

• Establish a physical visit or a virtual tour of local restaurants in target communities to review

facilities, engage directly with staff and identify opportunities to partner.

Step 3: Identify a cohort of potential vendors

• Issue a Public Notice, Request of Proposals, or other public notification, per local guidance / 

specifications, outlining partnership opportunity, overview of program and programmatic goals. 

Depending on your specific organization and operating environment, other approaches such as 

a Request for Bid or Project Announcement may be more applicable. 

• Contact restaurants identified in the environmental scan that serve meals within the desired price 

point and those willing to agree to a mutually beneficial price.

• Look to find vendors that serve key target populations. Communicate the benefits of being a 

meal provider to potential partners. This may involve using community partners to find vendors

have the expertise to meet the nutritional needs of your target population. 

Step 4: Review data collected, select and contract with identified vendor

• Collaborate with your identified food retail partner and negotiate a mutually beneficial 

contract for your collaboration.

o Contracting Tips for Purchasing Meals

• Share the following resources with your identified vendor to ensure they have a broad 

understanding of how best engage with your SNP

o Nutrition Requirements of the OAA
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Step 5: Develop implementation procedures, and launch partnership

• Review and finalize all product and programmatic specifications outlined in contract.

• Establish biweekly or monthly meetings with your food retailer partner to ensure continued 

communication as collaboration advance.

• Establish an implementation timeline and data management technology/accounting 

systems

• Prepare a protocol for meal delivery or pick up. The contract with the identified vendor can 

include one or more options: using a meal voucher or other payment system for dining in or 

take-out from the food retailer, delivery of meals to meal sites or clients at their homes, or 

allowing a designated loved one to pick up meals for the program participant. Contracts should 

allow for a revisiting of protocols to make any needed adjustments and to ensure practices align 

with your State and local public health policies.

o Note: Meal voucher or electronic meal card programs are not the same as offering a 

gift card. Instead, meal vouchers and electronic meal cards are ways that SNPs can 

arrange for food retailers to record meals eaten by the seniors in a confidential manner.

• Market this new partnership to your clients through varied media channels. Ask the food 

retailer to market the new collaboration in a way that will reach the target audience. 

Key Questions to Inform Your Partnership Planning Process:

• Who should be on your team? What expertise should they have?

• Who is your target client or your target population? Where do they live, what do they need? 

What barriers to participation might they be confronting?

• What are the contracting process barriers that you will need to anticipate?

• Is there a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) / individual with comparable expertise that you

can engage with to provide support for the identified project partner as they review and process 

the nutrition aspects of contract?

• How will you manage the transaction between the client and the vendor (i.e., paper 

voucher, key fob, or by phone) and keep the transaction confidential?

• How will you accept participant donations? See the Voluntary Contributions Menu and more 

information at the Nutrition and Aging Resource Center Finances web page. 

• How will you assure the vendor establishes an appropriate system to support tracking and 

reconciling client participation records?

• Is contactless delivery of meals to clients needed and how will the vendor implement this? 

• How will a variety of menus that include cultural or regional specialties be made available for 

clients to select from? How will nutrition requirements be met? 

• How will you message and market your program so that your target clients understand how the 

program works? Be sure to manage client expectations.

• The sustainability of the initiative – how will you ensure that the partnership lasts? 

• What price range for the meal are you willing to target? How does this price range stack up 

against the pricing of local establishments that offer meals akin to those offered by your senior 

nutrition program? 

o It is recommended that delivery fees and/or gratuities are included as part of the 

fee.
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Materialsto Create to Engage/Orient Your Restaurant and/or Grocery Store Partner:

• A partnership guide that outlines key aspects of the partnership to keep mind such as: OAA 

Nutrition Program requirements, key nutrient targets, sample consent forms, participation 

requirements such as the need to participate in surveys to evaluate programmatic outcomes, 

confidentiality, specific policies they must adopt to limit fraud, waste and abuse, and guidelines 

for tipping for restaurant wait staff, etc.

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for restaurant dining participants so that they 

understand how the program works.

• On-going listing of comments and suggestions given to contractor monthly.

What Not to Do When Collaborating with a Restaurant or Grocery Store Partner:

• Regard your vendor as just a for-profit entity, in it for the profit. Restaurants or grocery stores

can be a good partner – and often are seeking a win-win, zero-net-cost partnership 

opportunity with a community-based organization like yours.

• Repeatedly ask for donations – be prepared to pay full price for other services or resources that

your organization needs – do not also go back to restaurant or grocery store vendor or partner to 

request free items.

• Scare off potential partners with an onerous and complex Request for 

Proposals/bidding/contracting process – be sure information on the bid or contracting 

process is available in layman’s terms.

What to Do When Collaborating with a Restaurant or Grocery Store Partner:

• During the negotiation and contracting process, design meals within context of what the vendor 

can offer – be sure to identify food items that are easy for the vendor to obtain to meet menu 

requirements. Use the Menu Creation Toolkit and Nutrition Guidelines Quick Tips for 

examples and resources. 

• Consider seeking out people with the following job titles when working with restaurants and 

grocery stores: store director, catering director, in-store registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN), 

banquet manager. 

• Understand potential and actual limitations of restaurant or grocery store partner - be 

mindful that they are: potentially new to the OAA and may need targeted technical 

assistance.

• Create an orientation presentation for your food retailer partner to introduce them to the 

requirements of the OAA Nutrition Program.

• Engage a contract or staff registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) /individual with comparable

expertise to work with each restaurant or grocery store partner both during and after the 

contacting process.

• Consider predominant aspects of local food culture and develop ways to factor that into 

contracting process to ensure programmatic success – i.e., Fish Fry Fridays

• Create menus that are appealing to the targeted population. 

• Work closely with identified partner – for example, engage the catering manager at partner 

organization to take the lead in key aspects of the partnership, such as menu writing.
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• Ask your food retail partner if they can dedicate an employee to your collaboration or 

alternatively, carefully explore if your partner can offer in-kind support (i.e., coupon books, gift 

cards). 

• Meet regularly with the selected vendor like any other subcontractor. Meetings need to be 

frequent in the beginning to discuss successes and challenges on both sides. 

• Create communications and marketing materials in anticipation of the planned start date for 

the initiative during the strategic planning process. Sample Flyer

• Create marketing materials that are clear and specific to ensure understanding of the 

partnership by target population.

• Co-create a checklist for grocery store, restaurant employees and volunteers to orient them to 

their various roles. Sample checklist

SAMPLE POLICY AND PROCEDURES

The OAA is written to allow for State and Local administered programs. Therefore, State and Local

organizations determine and set policies and procedures. These samples reflect this, and you are 

encouraged to work with your State and local entities as you establish resources you will need.

Heritage Area Agency on Aging

• VENDOR REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

• VENDOR CONTRACT

• VENDOR POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Erie County Department of Senior Services

• REUMERATION SCHEDULE

• CONTRACT TERMS AND CONDITIONS LANGUAGE

• CUSTOMER SATISFACTION SURVEY