Essay: Collaboration critical to addressing hunger among seniors

Across Massachusetts, hunger is not an emergency, it’s an everyday lived reality with a profound impact on the health and well-being for far too many in our communities. This problem is only exacerbated for populations that face resource gaps or difficulty accessing food, such as older adults.

The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) recently released our 4^th annual Food, Equity, and Access Study — a comprehensive study on the state of food insecurity, equity, and access over the past year in Massachusetts. This year, we expanded our survey with new questions to learn about food access and barriers across different cultural, socioeconomic, and geographic boundaries. A consistent theme across populations was the impact of food insecurity on seniors, both their physical and mental health, and their difficulty accessing food.

In Massachusetts, one in five seniors are considered food insecure. Seniors expressed concern about the rising food costs that so many of us are dealing with and the stress of trying to figure out where their next meal would come from. Older adults face unique challenges in accessing resources and are more at-risk for hunger because of barriers to transportation, limited budgets due to fixed incomes, and higher instances of chronic health conditions.

Food insecure adults 60 and older are more likely to suffer health conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Seniors are also uniquely affected by mental health conditions like anxiety and depression stemming from social isolation, stress, declining physical health, and more. Those who live alone may not have support from family or caregivers to help them purchase or prepare nutritious food to stay healthy and engage with them in the process.

To help address the challenges seniors face accessing food, GBFB has programs throughout Eastern Massachusetts targeted at supporting seniors to help them navigate these issues. Through mobile markets, local food pantries, and by being the only Massachusetts provider for the federal commodities program especially for seniors, we are bringing fresh and nutritious foods directly to seniors in the community which often provides meaningful interaction and engagement to prevent social isolation.

Trusted community partners like Senior Whole Health by Molina Healthcare understand these challenges and have opened up new doors to help us expand the reach of these services. Through a grant from their Place-Based Supports initiative, we were recently able to enhance our mobile market with the New Bedford Housing Authority to better serve seniors in the city. We work alongside the health plan, housing authority staff, and the nurses that take care of these seniors to pack and distribute healthy food and learn more about the unique needs of the residents.

Support from our community partners is especially impactful as the Massachusetts population ages. Comparing U.S. Census data from 2022 against projections of the commonwealth’s population in 2030, there is expected to be an over 16% increase in residents 65 years of age and older – residents who will require responsive and reliable infrastructure that supports their well-being and food security..

Food insecurity across the Commonwealth remains at disturbingly high levels. To make a difference and empower all of our residents with the opportunity to thrive, we must continue to embrace lasting community partnerships and engage with the many populations we serve in the communities where they live. As a lifelong resident of the Greater Boston area and having grown up in the New Bedford area, I am proud of the work that Team GBFB and our network of agency partners is doing to help all our neighbors regardless of each individual’s circumstances and I believe that together we have the power to end hunger here.  

Cheryl Schondek is the Chief Operating Officer at The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB)