the texas congregate meal initiative (tcmi) a research-to-practice translational effort funded by the administration for community livings innovations in nutrition program and services (innu) grants and conducted by nandita chaudhuri in partnership with texas health and human services commission aimed to improve the well-being of older texans by modernizing the local congregate nutrition programs as the month of may celebrates older americans and raises awareness about issues related to aging key findings from this research are well poised to inform the texas aging network and policy makers to improve the lives of seniors across texas congregate meal programs are food-centric nutrition programs established by the federal government to reduce hunger malnutrition food insecurity and social isolation in seniors as an initial entry point into the community-based aging network services these meals are served in senior centers churches restaurants senior housing and other community settings as critical platforms that could be leveraged innovatively to facilitate senior well being although the senior population has been on the rise since 2005 congregate meal program participation has steadily declined across the nation most of the nearly 200 texas congregate senior nutrition providers have also suffered from participation decline and lack of innovative thinking to facilitate senior engagement in the programs the pandemic additionally exposed the pernicious effects of food insecurity and social isolation among the vulnerable seniors modernizing the programs through multi-faceted innovations thinking became an urgent need chaudhuri a research scientist in the colleges public policy research institute (ppri) and her research team (laila alvi zack brattin paul busch lisa halperin anthony jackson linda netterville ashleigh williams) led a $1 million three-year research project from 2019 to 2022 aimed at rethinking innovating and modernizing the congregate meal programs across texas this research has empowered local texas nutrition providers to ingeniously plan and test innovative low-cost and replicable congregate meal programs in both urban and rural settings to better serve todays older adults increase their participation in the programs and impact their health outcomes by modernizing these congregate nutrition programs chaudhuri and her colleagues have been able to improve older texans well being social integration food security and satisfaction and participation outcomes evaluation data from the sites show that 83 percent of the participating clients reported increased social connection 73 percent reported that their general well being improved and 73 percent reported that participating in the pilots helped them feel more food secured additionally 70 percent of the clients stated that participation in the programs helped improve their psychological well being and made them feel less sad and anxious sixty two percent of the clients rated the program quality as excellent the project also helped increase business acumen innovations thinking community partnership building marketing strategies and program developmental skills of professional staff implementing the programs in 16 texas area agencies of aging (aaa) regions