2024 Nutrition & Aging Services Conference
June 12-14, 2024 | Westin Downtown | Denver, CO

Schedule of Events

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Nutrition and Senior Center Directors Training Pre-Conference Intensive (PS1)
Separate Registration/Fee Required

This pre-session aims to equip participants with knowledge and resources essential for effectively addressing the needs of older Americans within the context of nutrition and aging services. Speakers from ACL will introduce the Older Americans Act, organization of the aging network, available resources, and basics of reporting and prioritization. The Nutrition and Aging Resource Center will provide lively discussion on the purpose of nutrition services, considerations for older adults, and other essentials of safely and successfully running a nutrition program, with time included for peer networking. We will close out the morning with a session on the challenges facing senior centers today and the mutual benefits of collaborative relationships between nutrition and senior centers.

Kathryn Tucker, MS, RDN, LD, FADN, Senior Nutrition Consultant
Office of Nutrition and Health Promotion Programs
Administration for Community Living (ACL)

Alexandra Bauman, RD, LDN,
Director of Nutrition & Aging Resource Center & Director of Navigation & Supportive Services
Iowa Department of Health and Human Services

Elizabeth Fridley, RDN, LD, Health Promotion Director
Iowa Department of Health and Human Services & Nutrition and Aging Resource Center

Dianne Stone, Associate Director
National Council on Aging (NCOA)

Lunch Break – On Your Own

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Innovations in Congregate Meal Programs Pre-Session (PS2)
Separate Registration/Fee Required

The session will focus on helping participants identify effective congregate innovation practices and develop a practical, actionable business plan for participants to implement in their respective programs. A panel of experts will review practical best practices and innovations in congregate, covering topics like targeting economic and social needs, creating business plans, menu innovation, and enhancing ambiance/programming. Attendees will have structured time to brainstorm with peers and create individual business with panel experts available for assistance. We will close the day with a panel discussion on overcoming barriers.

5:30 pm – 7:00 pm | Opening Welcome Reception

Thursday, June 13, 2024

8:00 am – 9:00 am | Continental Breakfast/Visit with Exhibitors

 9:15 am - 10:15am | Keynote Presentation

Creating a World that Values Aging

  Peter Kaldes, Esq., President & CEO
  Next50
  Denver, CO

10:15 am – 11.00 am | Morning Break in Exhibit Hall

11:00 am - 12:00pm | General Session

 A Culture of Care: Integrating A Trauma-Informed Approach to Serving Older Adults

Virtually everyone has experienced trauma and toxic stress in their lifetime. It is imperative that organizations that serve older adults are equipped to create a culture of care that includes honoring this reality. Trauma-informed care is a best practice approach that promotes safety for both those who provide and receive care. This session will introduce an integrative trauma-informed care model which will highlight 5 key tools to begin implementing into leadership and organizational culture. 

 Katie Kurtz
 Cleveland, OH

12:00 – 1:15 pm | Luncheon in Exhibit Hall

1:30 – 2:30pm | Breakout Sessions

Texercise: Combating Malnutrition in Older Texans

According to Defeat Malnutrition Today, one in two older adults is at risk of or already malnourished. Texercise, an internationally recognized Texas Health and Human Services health promotions initiative, educates and engages people and communities in healthy behaviors through free programs and resources. This session discusses the motivation and need for creating Texercise resources to combat malnutrition in older Texans and how attendees can use Texercise as a best practice model in their state.

Chelsea Couch, Statewide Texercise Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services
Austin TX

Holly Riley, Director,
Office of Aging Services Coordination
Texas Health and Human Services | Austin TX

Intergenerational Multicultural Cookbook Challenge

To celebrate and preserve cultural food traditions through bridging the gap between generations, the City of Los Angeles Department of Aging and Woodcraft Rangers Afterschool Agency partnered to bring awareness to and minimize “food apartheid” within the ethnically diverse Los Angeles (LA) community through a multicultural cookbook challenge.  The access to culturally relevant foods, our food beliefs and norms, and other cultural factors can affect an individual’s ability to practice foodways thereby influencing food security. Therefore, preserving food heritage plays a vital role in enhancing food security, particularly within communities facing structural barriers such as Black, Indigenous, Latinx, rural, and elderly communities. This project addresses social isolation in adults (60+) by uniting them with the younger generation to enrich participants’ lives and address vital social issues through experience-sharing. Providing a “seat at the table” fostered connectedness in a natural and time-proven way through breaking bread together and intergenerational storytelling. This cookbook challenge invites youth and older adults from LA to collaborate and share traditional family recipes reflective of their cultural food preferences.  

Tammy Williams
City of Los Angeles Department of Aging

Josephine Thomason, National Advisor
Alliance for a Healthier Generation

2:30 pm – 2:45 pm | Afternoon Break

2:45 pm -3:45 pm | Breakout Sessions

Fighting Food Insecurity: Free Produce & Better Health for Older Adults

Want to improve your client’s health by regularly providing them with free fresh fruits and vegetables? Are you in a rural area? An urban area? Indiana AAAs have successfully designed and implemented the statewide Produce for Better Health Program for food insecure older adults at high risk for chronic health conditions. About 9.8% adults over the age of 60 faced the threat of hunger in the last year. After just six months of produce deliveries, we observed a statistically significant reduction in weight and blood pressure among program participants. Participants learned about nutrition, how to monitor their weight and blood pressure, and changed their lifestyles. You will learn about our program design, key partners, challenges and early wins.

George Hawthorne
Director of Nutrition and Transportation
REAL Services, Inc. | South Bend, IN

Allie Overett, MS, RD, LD
CICOA Aging &In Home Solutions
Indianapolis, IN

Innovative Approaches to Engage Older Adults in Preventive Health and Nutrition Programs

Join us to learn Dallas County HHS's innovative strategies and technology tools for engaging older adults. Using Blooming Health, an automated communication solution, they effectively reached clients in multiple languages through text, email, and calls, sending targeted reminders for vaccine clinics, nutrition education, and blood pressure screenings. As a result, they vaccinated 1,600 individuals, with plans to vaccinate 3,000 by 2024. This helped them re-engage older adults who had not returned since COVID. 

Kavitha Gnanasambandan, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer
Blooming Health, Inc. | New York, NY

Mark Edwards, Assistant Director of Social Services
Dallas County Health and Human Services | Dallas, TX

3:45 pm – 4:00pm | Afternoon Break

4:00 pm – 5:00 pm | Breakout Sessions

The Senior Center, From Ordinary to Extraordinary: A Journey to Positive Aging and Equity

Unlock the secrets to transforming an ordinary senior center into an extraordinary senior resource center that champions positive aging, empowers older adults, and dismantles inequities in aging. The session's goal is to equip you with the knowledge, skills, and strategies to transform your senior center into... Join us to develop personalized action plans, analyze real success stories, and gain practical strategies to promote positive aging and setting a new standard for aging services.

The session will use methods designed to engage participants actively, promote experiential learning, and encourage collaboration. These methods include storytelling for emotional engagement and group discussions for peer learning. It will prioritize interactivity, reflection, and actionable takeaways to ensure that participants leave with a clear plan and a deeper understanding of how to apply positive aging and equity principles in their work. Participants will be asked to reflect on what they've learned and commit to at least one actionable step they will take to implement positive aging practices in their organizations or communities. They can share their commitments through a designated platform. 

Arthur Crawford, CEO
Silver Sage | Bandera TX

Regulations Update on Older Americans Act

Amy Wiatr-Rodriguez, Director, Center for Regional Operations and Percy Devine, Region 8 Administrator
Administration for Community Living (ACL)

The Older Americans Act (OAA) provides critical funding to the Aging Network that includes state agencies, tribal organizations, area agencies on aging and thousands of service providers across the U.S. While the OAA statute was last reauthorized in 2020, the majority of the OAA’s regulations had not been updated since 1988. In 2022 ACL started updating these rules, starting first with a formal request for information (RFI), followed by a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) in 2023, and culminating with a final rule published on February 14, 2024. The aim for this session is to provide attendees with important information regarding the OAA regulations and their implementation, with a special focus on what service provers need to know, as well as other pertinent updates impacting the Aging Network.

Friday, June 14, 2024

8:00 – 8:30 pm | Continental Networking Breakfast

 8:30 – 9:30 am | General Session

 Incorporating Earned (Free) Media into Your Organization Plan

Learn how to effectively pitch story ideas and build relationships with members of the media! This session will give you all the tips, tricks and best practices for working with media partners, including:

•  Determining what is “newsworthy” and when to reach out to media outlets
•  How to prepare for an interview
•  Interacting with reporters (Remember – “you’re on the record!”)
•  What NOT to do during a media interview
•  How to handle an interview question you don’t want to answer (Hint: It’s not by saying “no comment!”)
•  Opportunity to practice a mock interview experience

By the end of this session, you will feel ready to deliver your message clearly and confidently!

JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL PRE-CONFERENCE WEBINAR MEDIA 101 WEBINAR EVENT - For FREE! TUESDAY APRIL 30th
Click Here to Register Now

 Collin Bishop
 Chief Communications Officer
  FeedMore WNY  |   Buffalo, NY

  Catherine Shick
  Public Relations Manager
  FeedMore WNY  |  Buffalo, NY

9:30 – 9:45 am | Coffee Break

9:45 – 10:45 am | General Session

Avoiding Burnout

   Jamie Huysman, PsyD, LCSW, Chief Compassion Officer
   WellMed Medical Management

 
10:45 am – 11:00 am | Coffee Break

 11:00 am – 12:00 pm | General Session

Innovative Programs through Collaboration with other Community-Based

Learn more about the innovative programs Meals on Wheels of the Salinas Valley has successfully implemented to allow them to continue to serve older adults for over 50 years!  Their Executive Director will share more about their creative, fun and informative community-based collaborations with proven health benefits including a music therapy for our homebound clients, their award winning senior social held in 5 different cities every month and their Art & About Program.

  Regina Gage, Executive Director
  Meals on Wheels of the Salinas Valley, Inc. | Salinas CA

12:00 – 1:00 pm | Lunch/NANASP Annual Meeting

1:00 – 2:00 pm | Closing General Session

Washington Update: The View on Aging Policy

During this session, our Executive Director Bob Blancato will put current aging and health policy issues into perspective and offer his assessment of what the future for older adults looks like in this election year. Topics will include priorities of the Administration, status of funding, key nutrition issues including the Farm Bill and other items including tips on how to interact with Medicaid as a nutrition provider or AAA.

  Robert Blancato, Executive Director
  National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs (NANASP)
  Washington, DC

  Kari Benson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Aging (Invited)
 Administration for Community Living (ACL)
 Washington, DC

  Shannon Attanasio, MA, Senior Vice President, Government Relations, Policy & Advocacy
  Medicaid Health Plans of America (MHPA)
  Washington, DC

 *******END OF CONFRENCE DRAWING! MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN*******

Scholarship Application: Pre-Conference Training on Congregate Meal Innovation at NANANSP’s 2024 Annual Training Conference

Are you part of a Title III congregate meal program where you want to make changes, but don’t know where to start? Does your program budget make it difficult to attend conferences? Apply for a scholarship to attend NANASP's preconference intensive and conference!

The Nutrition and Aging Resource Center has partnered with NANASP to provide an in-person workshop on innovations in congregate meal programs. Expert speakers from the network will share exactly how to transform your congregate meal programs to meet the needs of today’s older adults. We will focus on identifying potential barriers and solutions to bringing in new participants to congregate meal programs. Participants will leave with a basic ‘business plan’ to institute changes at their home site.

Conference Details: This workshop will be held June 11th, 2024 at Westin Downtown Denver, followed by the NANASP Annual Training Conference June 12-24, 2024

Application open: March 1-May 1, 2024 with 15-20 scholarships awarded on a rolling basis starting April 1, 2024.

Scholarship of $2000 to cover airfare, 3 nights of hotel, travel/transfers, and food. Conference registration fee will be waived. Must attend preconference intensive to receive scholarship

The scholarship application is 15 questions long and expected to take 15-20 minutes to complete. Questions? Contact Laura Borth at lborth@nanasp.org

APPLY NOW