The 1115 Waiver funding enables the Tzu Chi USA Northeast Region to create healthy, colorful, and delicious meals for distribution to care recipients. Photo/Hector Muniente
Written by Ariel Tsai
As part of the New York State Medicaid Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver, or 1115 Waiver, Tzu Chi USA Northeast Region has started a hot meals program to nourish the New York community with healthy, colorful, vegetarian meals.
Trained volunteers work in an assembly line to efficiently pack the hot meal lunchboxes. Photo/Hector Muniente
The 1115 Waiver entails a $7 billion investment, statewide, over three years through March 2027, into programs that improve health outcomes and quality of life for New Yorkers. The Waiver seeks to advance health equity, reduce health disparities, and support the delivery of health-related social needs services, such as Tzu Chi’s hot meals program.
Each week, our volunteers prepare 270 lunchboxes in two hours. The menu is always designed to have less salt and oil, while remaining delicious and nutritious. The produce is sourced from a supermarket partner that provides Tzu Chi with a wholesale price and donates goods. By 9:30 AM, the food is ready for trained volunteers to pack into boxes and prepare for delivery.
On Mondays, Tzu Chi supports Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Elmhurst, while on Wednesdays, it supports the Flushing area in Queens. About half of the recipients pick up their lunchboxes in person at the Tzu Chi offices, while the other half receive their meals delivered door to door through our Meals on Wheels program.
Sun Yongzhi, one of our hot meal recipients, received meals from volunteer Sansan Chiang and shared his story. He and his family have been living in a shelter in New York City for about seven months, since they left China after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Wuhan and left them unable to find work.
I’m very grateful to you all.
Mr. Sun expressed his hope that, someday, when he’s in a position to do so, he, too, can give back to the community just as it has given to him. The beauty of programs such as the 1115 Waiver and the creation of Social Care Networks is that not only do they improve the health of communities as a whole, but they also enable organizations like Tzu Chi to perpetuate the cycle of compassion and plant a seed of empowerment in people like Mr. Sun, enabling positive transformations in his own life as well as others.
It is through programs such as the 1115 Waiver and the love of people like you that we are able to continue providing this necessary care to our communities. You can support community care missions such as this, as well as other Tzu Chi USA Northeast Region activities, helping volunteers bring timely assistance that responds to individual and community needs as they arise.
