Hungry Seniors Can't Afford to Eat More Nutritiously, the Alameda County Community Food Bank Discovers After Conducting Focus Groups
by Anonymous

Oakland, CA August 10, 2004 -- Low-income seniors may not know where their next meal will come from and therefore are unable to concentrate on good nutrition, a focus group summary report released today by the Alameda County Community Food Bank revealed. This inability to care about healthy eating due to lack of food security held true even though seniors living below the poverty line are more likely to suffer from diet-related diseases like obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure.

While policy makers prescribe nutrition education as the solution to the explosion of diet-related diseases among low-income populations, the Food Bank's newly released qualitative data suggests that education alone will not address this problem until issues of hunger and food insecurity are first resolved.

"We know what to eat, it just takes money," said one senior at a focus group at St. Mary’s Center in Oakland, California. "We don't have problems eating correctly. Our problem is finances."

"You can’t teach people to eat healthy when they don’t have anything to eat," says Jessica Bartholow, Director of Education, Advocacy and Outreach at the Alameda County Community Food Bank. "It's impossible to improve the nutritional quality of food that low-income seniors eat without first addressing their lack of access to food."

Bartholow explains that seniors in particular need to be educated about the Food Stamp Program, the country's first line of defense against hunger, as senior participation rates in this nutrition program are among the lowest.

The Food Bank's findings come at a time when federal officials have proposed restricting funding through the Food Stamp Nutrition Education (FSNE) Program, limiting the type of nutrition education allowed and narrowing the target population of people eligible to receive services. Advocates argue that nutrition education must also include education about how to access food.

"The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) should acknowledge that a precondition for good nutritional outcomes is access to adequate resources to purchase food," states Ellen Vollinger, Food Stamp Director at the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) based in Washington, DC.

The Alameda County Community Food Bank’s food stamp promotion project is just one of several similar programs in California that currently receives federal funding for programs that increase access to food for low-income households.

In 2003, the Food Bank’s program educated over 30,000 low-income households about the food stamp program and other federal nutrition programs that could increase their ability to get food. Funding for programs like these will be cut throughout the country if the new funding framework being proposed by the USDA is approved.

The framework would not only cut funding to community based programs that increase access to food for low-income people but would also cut funding for nutrition education services for families, seniors and children unless they are currently participating in or applying for the Food Stamp Program. The proposed cuts, including $80 million in California programs alone, will be decided upon in the next few months.

This past week, the Food Bank joined over 1,000 other community-based organizations, advocates, schools, public health offices, and church leaders in sending letters to USDA officials requesting that they reconsider the newly proposed funding framework. Advocates were joined by 24 Representatives from California’s Congressional Delegation who signed a letter written by Congressman Joe Baca (D-CA) opposing the cuts.
               
Established in 1985, the Alameda County Community Food Bank works with 300 community based organizations, including soup kitchens and food pantries, to provide emergency food assistance to 120,000 people in need each month. In addition to food distribution, the Food Bank works to break the cycle of poverty and hunger through education and advocacy efforts. For more information, call (510) 834-3663 or visit www.accfb.org.

To contact FRAC, visit www.frac.org or call Ellen Vollinger at 202-986-2200, ext. 3016
To contact the USDA, visit www.usda.gov, or call the USDA Office of Communications at 202-720-4623
To contact Representative Baca, call Joanne Peters at 202-225-6161




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