The Memorial Meal Mates: a program to improve nutrition in hospitalized older adults

A common problem among older hospitalized patients is inadequate nutritional intake. The Memorial Meal Mates project was developed to address this problem. College-aged volunteers were provided a 3-hour in-service taught by an interdisciplinary team. During a 2-month period, the Memorial Meal Mates fed 34 patients, who were compared with 34 other patients fed by nursing staff. The mean intake of the Meal Mates group was 58.88%, compared with the mean intake of the control group of 32.45%. Patients fed by the volunteers nearly doubled their intake over those fed by nursing staff.