The development of catering services for the elderly is an important part of the implementation of the national strategy to actively respond to population aging, and also a powerful measure to improve the well-being of the elderly. In recent years, starting with solving the most concerned and urgent dining problems of the elderly, Suzhou has innovated its work measures and gradually formed a "15 minute meal service circle", so that the elderly can have a "warm meal, safe food" nearby. Since this year, the city has carried out catering service for the elderly about 1.9 million people in total. Suzhou's relevant experience and practices were exchanged at the provincial catering work conference, and were publicized and reported by the People's Daily, China Social Daily and other mainstream media.
At present, 98% of catering service points in the city are embedded. Relying on the existing elderly care service complex, day care center and other facilities, they are embedded in the regional central kitchen, canteen for the elderly, and catering service for the elderly to expand the scope of catering service. Among them, 179 canteens for the elderly have been newly built, reconstructed and expanded, which can radiate to 3 to 6 elderly food helpers around, effectively consolidating the foundation of urban and rural community food service. From 2023, the reconstruction or new construction of catering service facilities for the elderly will be included in the annual livelihood projects of provinces and cities. Last year, our city completed the construction of 66 food helpers. It is planned to complete 100 projects this year, of which 59 will be newly built and 41 will be upgraded. At present, 18 projects have been completed, 47 projects have been started and 35 projects are being further optimized. At the same time, featured service projects are constantly emerging. Zhangjiagang City implemented the project of "Silver Hair Dining Table - Charity+Party Building", linking charity resources to provide unified signs, kitchenware, lunch boxes, delivery vans and other facilities and equipment for meal aid points, and further standardized service supply. Wujiang District has selected community convenience canteens and listed them as "Elderly Dining Table" to provide preferential meal aid for the elderly through discounts and other ways. Wuzhong District explores "elderly care institutions+catering assistance", unleashes the potential of elderly care institutions' kitchens, prepares and distributes meals for surrounding food aid points, and provides dining services for the elderly. Suzhou Industrial Park integrates the resources of neighborhood committees, industry committees, property service enterprises and brand catering enterprises, encourages and guides "property enterprises+catering assistance", and relies on the property service housing in the community to pilot the construction of the park's first comprehensive canteen for the elderly. The food is rich and distinctive, and has achieved good social response.
Since January this year, Suzhou has gradually provided catering services to the public, rather than only catering for the elderly. Scientific and technological innovation is boosting the elderly care service to achieve "curve overtaking". With the blessing of comprehensively promoting intelligent empowerment, "smart restaurants" are constantly emerging in Suzhou. Zhangjiagang Elderly Dining Aid is equipped with face recognition devices in a unified way, which can be used to settle meal aid through face recognition, card swiping and other forms, and develop "Zhangjiagang Today" small program for meal delivery. Wuzhong District, relying on the smart catering applet, can brush the face and scan the exclusive two-dimensional code when picking up meals, and accurately count the amount of catering subsidies through the catering platform to facilitate cost settlement and supervision. Suzhou Industrial Park has built a three module meal aid system of "central kitchen, community canteen and caring merchants", providing online ordering, nutrition analysis, chronic disease recuperation, visual whole chain supervision and other refined services. Relying on the city's elderly care service data resource database, the city level is developing and building the city's elderly catering service management information platform, strengthening the dynamic management of services, and promoting the accurate docking of resources.
Our city has formulated and improved the "four subsidies" of construction subsidies, operation subsidies, meal subsidies and meal delivery subsidies, and each region has refined the subsidy standards and distribution processes according to the actual situation. In terms of refined security system, the dining allowance for the elderly with meal aid "worth more" is formulated according to the ability assessment and economic status of the elderly, focusing on the dining allowance of 2 to 10 yuan for the elderly over 80 years old, the elderly in urban and rural areas who support the elderly in extreme poverty, the elderly in low-income and marginal families, and the elderly in special family planning families. At the same time, local governments have actively mobilized village (residential) autonomous organizations, catering merchants, charitable social work organizations and other forces to provide door-to-door meal delivery services for the elderly with mobility difficulties. The recently released implementation plan of "Soviet style meal aid", at the municipal level, raised the standard construction subsidies, strengthened the evaluation of operating subsidies, added the elderly meal allowance, meal delivery subsidies, and implemented preferential policies in water, electricity, gas, tax, etc., to further increase the support for meal aid services. In addition, a diversified financing mechanism of "individual contribution, enterprise concession, government subsidy, collective contribution, and social donation" has been widely established in various regions to support the catering service agencies for the elderly to provide stable services. The city has strengthened the ability of catering service for the elderly to resist risks through unified accident insurance for the elderly and liability insurance for home-based elderly care service organizations. Huangdai Town, Xiangcheng District set up a "special fund for catering for the elderly" and raised 1.69 million yuan in the first batch of donations. Loufeng Street of Suzhou Industrial Park builds a love kitchen, which gathers the strength of enterprises, social workers and volunteers to provide nutritious and delicious dishes for nearly 300 elderly, disabled and solitary people in the area. At the same time, the socialized operation rate of catering service in our city has exceeded 95%, which has gradually formed a benign competitive pattern in which state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and social organizations complement each other and go hand in hand.
