Colorado regularly makes Top 10 lists for food insecurity among older adults. At the same time, enrollment in the Colorado Supplemental Food Program, which specifically serves people 60 and older, has seen declining enrollments for years, well before pandemic shutdowns caused additional hardships.
That’s a disconnect that Kathy Underhill, Food Program Distributions Manager for the Colorado Department of Human Services and her team are focused on.
“The folks that are older adults today are very different than older adults of years ago with different expectations and different thoughts about aging,” Underhill said. “We have to meet those expectations within a food program that is largely controlled at the federal level.”
At the heart of this effort is a reimagining of how the program is positioned with older adults. By federal guidelines, the program provides no fresh foods. So repositioning it as a “center of the grocery store” effort to provide shelf stable, foundational food is critical. Older adults can then use limited additional resources specifically on those fresh items found around the outside of the grocery store.
“A program called the Commodity Supplemental Food Program doesn’t make you want to jump on board,” Underhill noted. “We had to find a way to compliment this repositioning of the program with a look and feel that speaks to older adults today.”
Coupled with the repositioning of the program’s value to older adults is a new name, Everyday Eats, and a more modern look and feel. These new marketing resources will be joined by a more aggressive outreach effort to encourage older adults to learn more about the program, how it works and what it can do for them. For example, did you know that older adults can designate up to two proxies who can pick up food for them through the Everyday Eats program, so older adults with mobility issues or pandemic concerns can still receive program food resources. Initial efforts will center around stronger statewide connections with the Area Agencies on Aging as well as work to encourage medical referrals by health professionals.
There is urgency in this effort not only for the obvious reasons that many older adults need food resources today, but also because the program has a use it or lose it structure. The state caseload is set by federal regulators and each year Colorado sees caseload declines, it receives fewer spots it can fill in the following year. In addition, while many food banks and pantries began increased home delivery during the worst days of the pandemic, not all of those organizations will have the resources to continue that additional work as restrictions and the resources that accompany the national public health emergency go away.
“We need to take this on as a priority because we know we have older adults in need,” Underhill said. “But we can’t do it alone. We need the networks of all of us who care deeply about hunger relief to help.”