This is the 10th story in our new series on senior food insecurity. It’s a topic that is especially important in the greater Memphis area, which has the third-highest senior food insecurity rates in the country.
Rather than act as competition, two organizations with a similar mission have shown that collaboration always wins. When it comes to addressing the needs of seniors and those living with disabilities, both MIFA and the Aging Commission of the Mid-South work as a unified front to address needs, and provide impactful services to seniors in West Tennessee.
Their partnership shows how constant communication, transparency, and a shared passion for service can have an even greater impact on their community.
Kim Daugherty is the Executive Director of the
Aging Commission of the Mid-South. The local, federally-designated area agency aims to provide impactful information, programs, and assistance to seniors, adults with disabilities, and their families and caregivers. Through activities, socialization, community-based programs and senior centers, the Aging Commission of the Mid-South provides folks with the tools to maximize independence and safety within the community.
The Aging Commission is part of the Aging Network, which originated from the Older Americans Act of 1965. Today, these federal funds are administered to Fayette, Lauderdale, Shelby, and Tipton Counties in West Tennessee.
Daugherty says the Commission works with other entities, including MIFA to administer funds and deliver services to seniors and those living with disabilities.
“Our relationship with MIFA has been around since the '70s when the first contract with them was in 1976,” Daugherty says. “Throughout the years, there have been various ways MIFA has worked with The Aging Commission to help it implement its mission.”
MIFA’s popular program,
Meals on Wheels, delivers 4,500 meals per week to seniors homes, senior centers, and other congregate sites. The organization provides high-impact programs to more than 30,000 individuals in Memphis and Shelby County each year.
“Additionally, MIFA currently acts as the ombudsmen visiting nursing homes and senior living facilities to help advocate for people who reside there, on behalf of the Aging Commission,” Daugherty says. “It’s a robust relationship that has evolved and changed over the years as the needs have changed.”
During her time as Executive Director, Daugherty says she’s witnessed the demographics in the community changing, over the past six years.
“In the city of Memphis, 20% of the people are over the age of 65,” she says. “By 2034, there will be more people over the age of 65 than there are people under the age of 18 in America. We have changing demographics in our community and country, and I think that presents opportunities for all of us to find ways for intergenerational relationships so the generations are supporting each other.”
Part of that support comes from volunteers and staff at both organizations, helping to fill the needs of vulnerable populations, and address deficits that have a real impact on the quality of life for folks.
One of those unmet needs is nutrition and access to food. Arnetta Stanton Macklin, Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer for MIFA, says their organization currently has a waiting list of 3,000 people seeking out the Meals on Wheels program.
MIFA also occupies the role of an urban provider within the Advisory Council for the Aging Commission of the Mid-South, which broadens the discussion from the Memphis area to the entire state of Tennessee.
Daugherty says that communication between the two entities has been vital to increasing their collective impact.
“In partnerships, you communicate with each other,” she says. “You let each other know information, include each other in decision-making. You talk about the good and the bad. You’re honest about the relationship, express disappointments, and share triumphs with each other.”
Those individual and collective triumphs feel even sweeter when celebrated together, says Daugherty.
“It’s incredible to have a partner like that,” she says. “When you see the partnerships that do the work that we are asked to do, you want to find dynamic organizations that not only fit the specific needs you work with them on, but are also looking beyond that, and finding ways that they can help the people that you are also interested in helping. That’s really what MIFA does — they really work hard to do the things we ask, but also find ways to go beyond that.”
Sometimes, Arnetta and Kim meet before their statewide Tennessee Federation on Aging meetings, just to make sure they are a united front, and “on the same page” regarding advocacy efforts and goals.
“From a communication and a solidarity standpoint, it shows that we are unified and represent not just individual agencies, but seniors in our area, as a whole,” Macklin says.
Since a joint merger between the Department of Disability and the Department of Aging in Tennessee, MIFA and the Aging Commission have worked even harder to ensure this restructure means no folks are left behind.
“Another thing we’re working on collaboratively is making sure that even though the departments have merged, that the concerns and issues of seniors and older adults continue to be highlighted,” Macklin says. “The reality is, a lot of our seniors also have disabilities as well.”
As inflation is expected to impact many Americans again, especially vulnerable populations, their need for extra help will likely increase as well. Looking ahead, both organizations are poised to help address those needs. They’re not only realistic about the present, but also hopeful for the future.
Ideally, Macklin would love to see more funding to allow all seniors on the nutrition waiting list to be able to receive meals, as well as an increase in the number of volunteers with MIFA.
“I’d love to continue to serve and help provide services not only for the Meals on Wheels program but for the long-term care of those in the program as well,” she says.
For Daugherty, her idea of a bright future would include helping every single person in need.
“I’m going to dream, because if you don’t dream, if you don’t have a vision, you have no place to go,” she says. “For me, my vision would be that when people call and ask for assistance, we can readily give that assistance to them — no matter what the number would be.”
She also hopes that future MIFA plans to include the state’s first-ever virtual senior center will come to fruition.
Macklin says the keys to their collective, successful, decades-long partnership have been transparency, communication, and staying true to their missions. Missions they’ll continue to live out each day both singularly and collectively as collaborators.