Hold the meatloaf; here's the tilapia

When Sharon Schluessler turned 65 last year, she signed up for Meals on Wheels. She was disappointed to see the old-school menu of mushy potatoes and canned vegetables. Then January rolled around.

Suddenly, fresh salads, wild rice pilaf, whole-grain pasta and "Cauliflower Alfredo" began appearing in the white bag delivered to her front door. Organic and vegan meals became available.

Call it a sign of the times. As more finicky baby boomers begin enrolling in the nation's largest senior nutrition program, organizers are responding by offering a new generation of comfort food.

This Ramsey County service appears to be the first in the state -- and among a fraction of the 5,000 Meals on Wheels programs in the nation -- to offer a "green" menu.

"I've always eaten fresh fruits and vegetables and watched my diet," said Schluessler, who has diabetes and lives in White Bear Lake. "The meals before had too much gravy over everything. This doesn't have all that crap."

The Meals on Wheels changes are a harbinger of how services for seniors -- in general -- are likely to respond as the first wave of boomers hit age 65 this month. Unlike the older seniors in their 80s, the younger generation is likely to have higher expectations for everything from food to housing to health care, said Enid Borden, president of the Meals on Wheels Association of America.

"Are boomers going to go to senior centers and play bingo?" she asked. "The model will change."

Borden sees the trend as the wave of the future. But there's a tension between the programs' twin goals of "ending hunger" and "providing good nutrition," she said, because natural foods cost more money.

"That's the conundrum," Borden said.

900 meals a day

Meals on Wheels programs in St. Paul, White Bear Lake, New Brighton and other Ramsey County suburbs began the whole foods experiment this month, said Barb Arrell, executive director of the Senior Services Consortium of Ramsey County.

They serve about 900 meals a day, or about 2,700 a month, which is a quarter of all Meals on Wheels served in the metro area.

"We had a similar situation about five years ago with vegetarian food," said Patrick Rowan, executive director of Metro Meals on Wheels. "Now we have a vegetarian option for all our meals."

Kosher food is also available.

Vera Lohman isn't a baby boomer, but the young-at-heart California transplant is one of the biggest fans of the new healthier menu. A big fan of Trader Joe's health foods, she said she used to throw away half the meals that arrived for lunch.

Sitting in the kitchen of her sunny apartment in White Bear Lake last week, she opened up a meal of glazed ham, scalloped potatoes, a freshly made roll, mixed frozen vegetables and carrot cake.

"Look at the potatoes! They're real!" Lohman said, lifting a fork full of potato slices from the serving dish. "Before we had whipped potatoes that were runny.

While the meal on this day was relatively traditional, the January menu taped inside Lohman's kitchen cupboard showed unexpected offerings. "Baked tilapia with lemon jus." Wild rice pilaf.

Some older folks look at the new menu and ask, "What's that?" Arrell said. Other folks see it and say, "That's great!"

Meals on Wheels wants to keep both groups happy, she said.

"I just turned 65 myself," Arrell said. "This is not going to be the same menu that our mothers and fathers wanted."

Organizers credit their new food service provider, the Minneapolis-based Open Arms of Minnesota, with offering the healthier diet at an affordable cost.

Meals on Wheels groups across Minnesota are watching the Ramsey County experiment with interest, Rowan said. He expects it to be a topic at the groups' annual meeting in March.

"I just fielded a call yesterday from someone who started the [traditional] service, then ended it, because they didn't appreciate the meat-and-potatoes diet," Rowan said. "I think this is the direction more groups will be going."