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Improving Aging Services Outcomes:
Union County Senior Nutrition Program
The Senior Nutrition Program of Union County, North Carolina provides nutritious meals to residents ages 60 and older, along with a wide range of support, educational resources, and social opportunities designed to enrich the lives of the county’s senior adults. These services are offered at no cost to participants, made possible through a combination of federal, state, and county funding, as well as voluntary contributions of program participants.
Located along the border of Charlotte, Union County encompasses both rural communities and rapidly-growing suburban neighborhoods. To fulfill this mission, the Senior Nutrition Program operates four congregate nutrition sites throughout Union County, each serving as a hub where seniors can enjoy a hot meal while participating in social and wellness activities. From these sites, staff and volunteers deliver meals across 29 hot-meal routes, ensuring that homebound seniors receive food and wellness checks. On average, the program provides meals to roughly 100 participants at congregate sites, delivers about 200 hot meals to homes, and distributes frozen meals to 40 participants each day.
The Challenge
Initially, Union County’s Senior Nutrition Program managed all its operations and case records across twelve separate Excel spreadsheets, a process that demanded extensive time and effort to maintain. As the participant waitlist grew, this reliance on scattered, manually-updated data made it difficult to ensure accuracy or build a strong case for funding. Too many limited resources were consumed by data entry, leaving little opportunity to highlight program successes or demonstrate impact to potential funders.
The ServTracker Difference
Union County prioritized finding a more effective solution, and through conversations with neighboring counties discovered ServTracker by CaseWorthy. After adopting the platform, they quickly saw streamlined data management and significant improvements in their overall operations. Here are some of the key impacts and results that ServTracker delivered for Union County’s Senior Nutrition Program:
OPTIMIZATION
In addition to providing a single source of truth, clear data, and powerful reporting tools, ServTracker helped the County develop a better method for creating delivery routes, where before they had been reliant on copying and pasting information from MapQuest. “Optimizing the routes,” reports Program Manager Emily Colson, “and being able to print the route sheet was huge. It’s super helpful and saved us a lot of time.”
By shifting from handwritten notebooks and spreadsheets to ServTracker’s modern database, Union County saved approximately 10-15 staff hours per week. That time was reinvested in improving the programming, helping work through the waitlist to continue to reduce backlog, and providing additional capacity for meal delivery and coordination with partner organizations.
HOURS SAVED PER WEEK
WAITLIST REDUCTION
With ServTracker’s enhanced data collection and reporting, Union County was able to accurately assess its waitlist of more than 700 names and present clear insights to the Board of Commissioners. This transparency helped secure additional funding, enabling the County to remove 110 individuals from the waitlist—reducing the backlog by 18% and expanding access to vital services.
ServTracker’s advanced data querying and reporting tools significantly strengthened the County’s ability to advocate for itself and gain support from government and funding sources. Over the past year, Union County leveraged these capabilities to build a partnership with a county commissioner and secure nearly $300,000 in additional funding. With ServTracker, the County was able to clearly demonstrate its positive impact and showcase its capacity to expand services to reach more residents in need.
IN EXTRA FUNDING
Conclusion
ServTracker enabled Union County to transition from spreadsheets and handwritten notes, replacing fragmented processes with a single, unified system that transformed challenges into opportunities. By eliminating time-consuming manual tasks and streamlining data entry, the County freed up valuable resources while gaining access to accurate, real-time information. With powerful reporting tools, staff could easily generate high-quality reports to advocate for their programs and secure additional funding, ultimately expanding services and delivering better outcomes for senior citizens across Union County
