[Senate Hearing 117-565]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                        S. Hrg. 117-565

                           SETTING THE TABLE:
                    PROMOTING HEALTHY AND AFFORDABLE
                        FOOD FOR OLDER AMERICANS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                       SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS


                             SECOND SESSION
                               __________

                             WASHINGTON, DC
                               __________

                           DECEMBER 15, 2022
                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-25

         Printed for the use of the Special Committee on Aging
         
         
                  [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]         
         

        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
                              ___________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                    
50-496 PDF                WASHINGTON : 2023   



        
                       SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING

              ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania, Chairman

KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, New York      TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts      RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MARCO RUBIO, Florida
MARK KELLY, Arizona                  MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
RAPHAEL WARNOCK, Georgia             RICK SCOTT, Florida
                                     MIKE LEE, Utah
                              ----------                              
        Michael Gamel-McCormick, Acting Majority Staff Director
                 Neri Martinez, Minority Staff Director


                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              

                                                                   Page

Opening Statement of Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr., Chairman......     1
Opening Statement of Senator Tim Scott, Ranking Member...........     2

                           PANEL OF WITNESSES

Jeremy Everett, Founder and Executive Director, Baylor 
  Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, Waco, Texas...............     5
Temitope Walker, Ph.D, Senior Hunger Nutrition Coordinator, 
  Georgia Department of Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia.........     6
Tom Gilroy, Volunteer, East Cooper Community Outreach, Mount 
  Pleasant, South Carolina.......................................     8
Elayne Masters, Nutrition Advocate, Allegheny County, Gibsonia, 
  Pennsylvania...................................................    10

                                APPENDIX
                      Prepared Witness Statements

Jeremy Everett, Founder and Executive Director, Baylor 
  Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, Waco, Texas...............    31
Temitope Walker, Ph.D, Senior Hunger Nutrition Coordinator, 
  Georgia Department of Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia.........    36
Tom Gilroy, Volunteer, East Cooper Community Outreach, Mount 
  Pleasant, South Carolina.......................................    43
Elayne Masters, Nutrition Advocate, Allegheny County, Gibsonia, 
  Pennsylvania...................................................    46

                        Questions for the Record

Temitope Walker, Ph.D, Senior Hunger Nutrition Coordinator, 
  Georgia Department of Human Services, Atlanta, Georgia.........    51

                       Statements for the Record

Defeat Malnutrition Today Statement..............................    59
Meals on Wheels Statement........................................    61
National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Program 
  Statement......................................................    70
.................................................................

 
                           SETTING THE TABLE:
                    PROMOTING HEALTHY AND AFFORDABLE
                        FOOD FOR OLDER AMERICANS

                              ----------                              


                      THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2022

                                       U.S. Senate,
                                Special Committee on Aging,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., 
virtually via Webex and Room 562, Dirksen Senate Office 
Building, Hon. Robert P. Casey, Jr., Chairman of the Committee, 
presiding.
    Present: Senators Casey, Gillibrand, Blumenthal, Rosen, 
Warnock, Tim Scott, Braun, and Rick Scott.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR 
                 ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., CHAIRMAN

    The Chairman. Good morning. The hearing will come to order. 
I want to thank everyone for being here, especially those of 
you who traveled a great distance and those of you who had to 
make a return trip because of our technical difficulties the 
last time we tried to conduct this hearing, so thank you to 
all, and I want to thank the Ranking Member and his team as 
well for working with us on rescheduling this hearing.
    We know that there are more than five million older adults 
in the United States who do not have the affordable and healthy 
food that they need. We also know that one in four grandparent 
head of households experiences food insecurity. I think we 
would all agree that it is unacceptable that any senior is 
going hungry.
    Many older adults face preventable barriers to accessing 
the food that they need to remain healthy and independent. Some 
older adults may be unable to drive, for example, and need 
accessible transportation to go to the grocery store. Others 
may benefit from streamlined enrollment processes or extended 
certification periods.
    Most older adults are living with chronic conditions and 
need the option to include fruits and vegetables as part of 
their meals. Thankfully, addressing hunger is an issue of 
longstanding bipartisan interest and action in this Committee, 
the Special Committee on Aging.
    We continue this tradition with today's hearing by 
introducing, with Ranking Member Scott, the bipartisan Senior 
Nutrition Task Force Act, Senate Bill 5096, which will 
establish an interagency task force to address hunger among 
older adults and adults with disabilities. We are also 
releasing the Committee's annual bipartisan report in both 
English and Spanish, recognizing the positive impact of 50 
years of funding to support the Older Americans Act Nutrition 
Program, so this is the report, our bipartisan report, and this 
is the Spanish version that we are releasing today. Both, of 
course, are available on the Aging Committee's website.
    We know that that is now 50 years of bipartisan not just 
support but investment to ensure that older adults have the 
food that they need to remain both healthy and independent.
    With the report, the Committee is releasing state-level 
fact sheets, highlighting the outcomes of the Older Americans 
Act Nutrition Program for each State, represented by the 
members of our Committee.
    In my home State of Pennsylvania, more than 9.4 million 
meals are served to older adults each year in congregate 
settings and through home-delivered services. Early this year I 
had the opportunity to visit with Linda Ellison from Montgomery 
County, Pennsylvania, who referred to her local Meals on Wheels 
program as the ``Miracle on the Way'' program. That is because 
the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program provides meals and 
helps older adults remain connected to their communities.
    I believe we can, however, further help older adults who 
need nutritious foods. Seniors like Barbara Myzick, from 
Luzerne County, in my home State of Pennsylvania, right up in 
northeastern Pennsylvania, who tell us that ``it is hard 
keeping a diet that is good for our health because that food 
can be expensive.''
    We know that less than half--less than half--of older 
eligible adults are enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition 
Assistance Program, we know as SNAP, which can help seniors put 
healthy food on the table and stretch their incomes.
    We also know that many older adults and adults with 
disabilities like Elayne Masters, who is with us today 
testifying--she traveled from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 
which is where Pittsburgh is, so you get the sense of the 
distance--that many older adults may struggle to access the 
benefits that they are eligible for due to preventable barriers 
in their lives.
    I look forward to working with Democrats and Republicans to 
invest in and increase access to essential nutrition programs 
for older adults.
    The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and 
Health, held earlier this fall, laid out a framework to support 
nutrition across the lifespan. Senator Braun, a member of this 
Committee, worked in a bipartisan manner to help make that 
conference happen, so together we can address senior hunger in 
the United States and provide older adults with meaningful 
opportunities for connection, and with that I turn to the 
Ranking Member, Ranking Member Scott.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR 
                   TIM SCOTT, RANKING MEMBER

    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you 
for rescheduling this hearing, and thank you to the expert 
witnesses for being here with us, both in person as well as 
virtually.
    I cannot think of a more important issue for us to discuss 
in the Aging Committee than making sure that our seniors have 
as much food as possible, that they are healthy, that they 
understand and appreciate how much we love them.
    I think that our work together in a bipartisan fashion to 
continue the 50-year tradition, as it relates to publishing 
both in Spanish and English the Nation's first nutrition 
program for older adults. I would also like to thank you, 
Chairman Casey, for working with me to introduce the Senior 
Nutrition Task Force Act, which will improve coordination.
    Think about it. In South Carolina we have 25,000 seniors 
who receive nearly three million meals a year. That is amazing, 
the number of folks across this country who need food 
sufficiency. I am thankful that we live in a nation and live in 
states where we have nonprofit organizations that are dedicated 
to the task, that they are up for the challenge, that they 
continue to respond.
    I think about one person specifically in South Carolina, in 
Charleston, a Vietnam veteran who spent 25 years defending our 
country, and he found himself diagnosed with Stage IV lung 
cancer and dementia. Neighbors drove his wife to the grocery 
store until COVID-19 hit, shutting everything down. When she 
called for help, they were starving, scared, and extremely 
depressed.
    DHEC brought emergency food from the food pantry and 
connected with the Low Country Street Grocery to receive a 
weekly delivery of fresh produce and eggs. The couple began 
receiving home deliveries in July 2020. While the veteran has 
since passed away, his widow continues to receive these much-
needed meals and is so grateful for the response.
    These services are so important for many older adults, 
especially when prices of everyday necessities continue to 
rise. Three out of four older adults report rising grocery 
prices have negatively affected their bottom lines, their 
ability to take care of themselves. About one-third are eating 
less healthy because of inflation. Grocery prices are up 12 
percent since last year, a 40-year high almost. Think about 
this: the cost of eggs has increased 49 percent, butter 27 
percent, bread 16 percent, milk and frozen fruits, vegetables 
15 percent, chicken 12 percent.
    Food pantries in South Carolina report a greater number of 
older Americans who need food than a year ago, when we were 
still in the pandemic. Some older Americans healthy enough to 
drive to the food pantries say the cost of gas is up about 30 
percent over the last two years, and it is actually causing 
them to go less often, so even when the food is available they 
go less often because they cannot afford the gas to get there.
    Farmers, including many senior family farmers, are also 
feeling the pinch. When the prices rise, we all pay more. 
Higher interest rates makes their work even more difficult.
    In December 2021, I wrote Ag Secretary Vilsack, asking what 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture intended to do to protect 
Americans from the rising prices. His reply failed to answer 
the question. Last December, I joined my colleagues, including 
Senators Braun and others, in urging Federal financial 
regulators to provide farm lenders with regulatory flexibility 
to work with their clients so that we would have a better 
situation for all Americans.
    Despite more government funding than ever, food banks are 
buying fewer commodities because the prices are so high. The 
nutrition program benefits many vulnerable and older Americans. 
We need lower prices and a strong economy to make this program 
as effective as possible.
    I hope this Committee can maintain a balanced approach to 
securing good nutrition for older Americans. I look forward to 
hearing from our witnesses today, and thank you very much, 
Chairman, for rescheduling this Committee.
    The Chairman. Ranking Member Scott, thanks very much, and I 
will start now with our witness introductions.
    Our first witness is Jeremy Everett. Jeremy Everett is the 
Founder and Executive Director of the Baylor Collaborative on 
Hunger and Poverty. He is also an affiliate of Temple 
University's Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, 
which works to ensure students in Philadelphia and across the 
country can meet their basic needs.
    Additionally, he was appointed by the U.S. Congress to 
serve on the National Commission on Hunger.
    Our second witness is Dr. Walker, the Senior Hunger 
Nutrition Coordinator for the Georgia Department of Human 
Service. Dr. Walker leads the implementation of the Georgia 
State Plan to Address Senior Hunger, the first of its kind in 
the State. Dr. Walker will share her experiences with an 
innovative approach the State of Georgia is taking to reduce 
food insecurity among older Adults. Doctor, I want to thank you 
for being here today and on the prior day, and for making the 
effort you made to be here twice for our hearing.
    Our third witness will be introduced by Ranking Member 
Scott.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is my 
pleasure to introduce Tom Gilroy. Tom is an 18-year resident of 
South Carolina. He and his wife, Marilyn, wanted to spend more 
time closer to their grandparents and giving back to their 
community. They previously volunteered in developing countries 
on nutrition, education, and housing projects, and now focus on 
helping people in the community in the Charleston area.
    They discovered East Cooper Community Outreach, or as we 
call it, ECCO, a community-based organization founded in the 
aftermath of Hurricane Hugo back in 1989. Tom and Marilyn are 
part of a team of over 300 volunteers who make ECCO so vital to 
our community. Tom volunteers at ECCO's food pantry where he 
interacts with clients from all walks of life. Many of them 
never expected to need ECCO's assistance. They are grateful for 
Tom, Marilyn, and all the volunteers and staff at ECCO.
    Tom, we appreciate you taking the time to share your 
experience with us in raising awareness of how important 
volunteers and community-based organizations are to improving 
nutrition among seniors. Thank you for being here with us 
today, and we look forward to hearing your testimony.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member Scott, and our 
fourth witness is Elayne Masters from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, 
Allegheny County, as I mentioned. Elayne is a nutrition 
advocate who recently was a representative at the White House 
Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, where she shared 
her experiences navigating food insecurity as both an older 
adult and a person with an invisible disability. Elayne will 
share her experience as a participant in Federal nutrition 
programs.
    Elayne, we want to thank you again for being here and 
making that trip, and I heard about the early train you took, I 
guess yesterday, right? Thanks very much.
    We will start with our first witness statement, and I will 
ask our witnesses to try to stay within the five-minutes. 
Obviously, if you go 20 seconds over we are not going to use 
the gavel, but obviously if you get into the minute and a half 
range, one of us will grab this gavel probably. Thanks very 
much. We will start with Mr. Everett.

              STATEMENT OF JEREMY EVERETT, FOUNDER
          AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BAYLOR COLLABORATIVE

               ON HUNGER AND POVERTY, WACO, TEXAS

    Mr. Everett. Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and 
distinguished Committee members and staff members who made 
today possible, thank you for providing us the opportunity to 
engage with an issue that has far-reaching implications for our 
neighbors facing barriers associated with aging and disability 
status.
    My name is Jeremy Everett, and I serve as the Executive 
Director of the Baylor University Collaborative on Hunger and 
Poverty. Our mission is to cultivate scalable solutions to end 
hunger. We do so through multisectoral collaboration, 
increasing access to public programs, and testing specialized 
interventions for populations disproportionately experiencing 
food insecurity.
    My testimony centers on a challenge with solutions rooted 
in our mission. These solutions build on an investment of more 
than half a century of tested interventions provided for in the 
Older Americans Act and opportunities provided for in the farm 
bill. They also open the door for interagency collaboration 
that more comprehensively supports the nutritional needs of 
older adults and adults with disabilities.
    According to the Urban Institute, since 2002, the number of 
older Americans has increased by almost 20 million, from 12.4 
percent to 16.3 percent of our total population. Over five 
million older adults suffer from food insecurity. Additionally, 
data from the Department of Health and Human Services reveals 
that disability status, regardless of age, is the primary 
indicator of food insecurity at the household level.
    Neither aging nor disability inherently make one 
predisposed to food insecurity. Instead, structural barriers 
like transportation access, siloed programming and resources 
have not kept pace with the demand. Our call to love our 
neighbors as ourselves compels us to identify and remove those 
barriers. The pandemic and its economic consequences have 
exacerbated challenges faced by this population to accessing 
adequate nutritious food.
    We know that one of these challenges is that food and fuel 
prices are higher but paychecks for those on fixed incomes are 
not rising proportionately. To combat this, I suggest three 
solutions. The first are to cultivate coalitions and 
interagency cooperation. Our core assumption at the Baylor 
Collaborative is that no one organization or sector can end 
hunger alone, a sentiment echoed at the White House Hunger 
Summit.
    The only plausible pathway forward to ending hunger in 
America is to create and sustain intergovernmental and 
multisectoral collaborations, so Chairman Casey and Ranking 
Member Scott, the Senior Nutrition Task Force Act will go a 
long way to ensuring that eligible older adults and adults with 
disabilities are enrolled in Federal nutrition programs.
    The second solution is SNAP accessibility. Less than half 
of eligible adults ages 60 to 69 participate in SNAP, the most 
effective intervention we have at strengthening food security. 
Yet many older and disabled adults find the program to be 
inaccessible. Pandemic initiatives such as outreach, automatic 
enrollment, automatic recertification help overcome these 
barriers associated with living on a fixed income. Making these 
initiatives permanent can vastly improve food security for 
millions of Americans as well as promote a more streamlined 
approach that will contribute to the efficiency of running the 
program.
    The third are specialized interventions. The pandemic 
helped demonstrate what additional funding and support programs 
can more innovatively address food insecurity in their 
communities. Many congregate meal programs began to offer meals 
in parks or partner with local restaurants. When you combine 
innovation with research, we are better able to accurately 
identify the problems of food insecurity and thus create 
interventions that can radically improve nutrition access.
    The best way you can do this is to utilize key legislation 
to promote and expand pilot projects. We often forget that 
senior congregate meal programs and home-delivered meals 
through Meals on Wheels were once pilots that were proven to be 
incredibly successful interventions and scaled through the five 
decades of the Older Americans Act. Now we need to continue to 
invest in these vital interventions while testing out new ways 
to improve adequate access to nutritious food.
    This is a winning issue for all of you. Strengthening food 
security for Americans is doable and continues to be one issue 
that people across ideological divides unite over. Political 
colors of red, blue, and purple fade into the background when 
it comes to figuring out how to ensure proper nutrition for the 
most vulnerable. They disappear altogether when we talk about 
doing so for older and disabled adults.
    Thank you.
    The Chairman. Mr. Everett, thanks very much for your 
testimony. Our next witness is Dr. Temitope Walker, and we 
appreciate her testimony and her return here.

           STATEMENT OF TEMITOPE WALKER, PH.D, SENIOR

        HUNGER NUTRITION COORDINATOR, GEORGIA DEPARTMENT

              OF HUMAN SERVICES, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

    Dr. Walker. Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and 
members of the Committee, thank you for holding this hearing 
today. I am honored to provide my testimony about some of the 
tremendous work occurring across Georgia to address senior 
hunger.
    I have over a decade of experience in evaluating, 
addressing, and raising awareness about the holistic needs of 
older adults. I came to my current role having obtained my 
doctorate in foods and nutrition and a graduate certificate in 
gerontology from the University of Georgia. My dissertation 
project, titled ``The impact of SNAP participation on food 
purchasing practices, diet quality, and food insecurity among 
low-income older adults'' exposed me to the impact of critical 
support services and resources available to seniors.
    I currently serve as Georgia's first Senior Hunger and 
Nutrition Coordinator, as was stated. I manage the 
implementation of Georgia's first-of-its-kind, standalone State 
plan to address senior hunger that was implemented in December 
2017. As a subject matter expert in senior hunger, I work with 
many different partners, including 12 senior hunger coalitions, 
which are housed within our 12 Area Agencies on Aging to help 
provide training, raise awareness, and leverage State policies 
and initiatives to improve the food security of older 
Georgians. Our Area Agencies on Aging coordinate the delivery 
of Older Americans Act services.
    Our division oversees non-Medicaid home and community-based 
services that help older Georgians, their caregivers live safe, 
healthy, and independent lives in their homes and communities. 
In 2020 and 2021, the division received an additional $44 
million in stimulus funding from the Consolidated 
Appropriations Act and the American Rescue Plan Act for home 
and community-based services and to promote vaccine access. 
This funded also included $25 million for meals and $17.5 
million for supportive services. Many of the additional 
services provided were made possible through this supplemental 
funding.
    Georgia is home to over two million older adults, 
accounting for 20 percent of the state's population. The 
division serves meals to just over 30,000 individuals through 
the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program. Georgia has a high 
level of diversity among our older adults, as reflected in 
race, ethnicity, culture, and cuisine. Accepting this diversity 
as an opportunity, Georgia continues to serve as a model in 
best practices and in proper leveraging of partners across 
different sectors.
    Though we do have high rates of food insecurity among our 
division meal recipients, these rates have been steadily 
declining. We are meeting our charge to target those in 
greatest economic and social need.
    The story of seniors in Georgia and across the Nation is 
really about the factors that impact their lives. It is 
working, receiving Social Security benefits or no income at 
all. It is owning or renting a home, or homelessness. It is 
living alone or living with multiple generations under one 
roof. It is choosing which utility bills to pay first or 
whether to buy some or all of their medicine.
    It is being a caregiver for their parents, children, 
grandchildren, or other relatives. It is finding the next food 
box giveaway or local pantry options. It is trying to find or 
maintain transportation for food, health, and connecting to 
others. It is their faith. It is the love of pets and taking 
care of them. It is adjusting to a place they did not grow up 
in and navigating in different languages. It is resilience of 
decades of getting by to make ends meet.
    The Older Americans Act Nutrition Program and the farm bill 
programs such as SNAP, the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition 
Program, and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program play 
critical roles in addressing food insecurity for older adults. 
It is fitting that the Committee is recognizing 50 years of the 
Older Americans Act Nutrition Program, which has been a 
critical support for our seniors.
    Georgia's State Unit on Aging has worked to leverage these 
programs by partnering with our aging service network and other 
State agencies, assessing food insecurity using a validated, 
six-item food security survey to determine those who are most 
at risk of hunger, and meeting all the recommendations of the 
first State plan to addressing your hunger, including the 
creation of a Senior Hunger Interagency Council comprised of 
our system agencies that provide critical support services to 
our seniors, from SNAP to housing.
    Here are some key observations from our work in Georgia. 
The solution to senior hunger should be a holistic one, 
including relevant programs, agencies, and stakeholders. The 
State plan broadens the diversity of stakeholders at the table, 
and there is no national model of interagency collaboration in 
data-sharing, service delivery, and program implementation for 
us to follow and leverage in State work. Therefore, the 
creation of our interagency council is a pioneering endeavor 
with lots of potential.
    Leveraging partnerships across the various sectors is 
critical in assessing and implementing and evaluation nutrition 
and aging programs, initiatives, and policies. We are proud 
that Georgia has been at the forefront of many of the 
recommendations of the White House National Strategy on Hunger, 
Nutrition, and Health, and we look forward to being a part of 
that.
    Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today and 
share our experiences here in Georgia. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Dr. Walker, thank you very much for your 
testimony and again, for coming back after the first hearing 
had to be postponed. Our next witness is Mr. Tom Gilroy.

              STATEMENT OF TOM GILROY, VOLUNTEER,

                EAST COOPER COMMUNITY OUTREACH,

                 MOUNT PLEASANT, SOUTH CAROLINA

    Mr. Gilroy. Good morning to the Senate Committee on Aging. 
Chairman Casey and Ranking Member Scott, I appreciate the 
opportunity to testify about my volunteer at the East Cooper 
Community Outreach, better known in the community as ECCO.
    I am Tom Gilroy. I live in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, 
and my wife Marilyn and I volunteer at the food pantry. I also 
serve on the development committee.
    ECCO is a community-based organization that has been 
created out of the needs from Hurricane Hugo in September 1989, 
so we have been operating for over 30 years. We serve 
Charleston County, east of the Cooper River, and we also serve 
parts of Berkely County. ECCO supports a growing need in our 
community of providing food, clothing, medical and dental care, 
as well as financial help for utilities, rents, and other 
short-term financial needs. ECCO provides skills to manage 
money and guidance to become as independent as possible.
    Our food pantry allows clients to choose specific foods for 
their family from our real-time inventory. They receive monthly 
points based upon their family's styles. The choice is made 
either online or by calling our office. We limit the number of 
specific food types to ensure more balanced nutritional meals. 
Also, once a month, ECCO hosts a free farmers market to provide 
local families with enough fresh fruits and vegetables for the 
entire household.
    ECCO's funding comes 62 percent from individuals and local 
business contributions, 26 percent from private foundations as 
well as business and corporate grants, and six percent from 
county, State, and Federal funds. The remaining comes from 
churches and civic organizations. The USDA partnership provides 
ECCO with 83,000 pounds of food a year.
    Our clients are 78 percent female, 57 percent are over the 
age of 55, and 14 percent over the age of 70. Twenty-3 percent 
of the households with children are led by grandparents.
    ECCO has had an increase over this past year, 
significantly. We serve an additional 50 families in our food 
pantry monthly. Distribution of clothing has increased by 43 
percent. New medical and dental clients also increased over the 
previous year by 30 percent, and our financial assistance has 
increased by nine percent. However, our food donations from our 
retail partners are down by 16 percent.
    Contributing factors are simple. Most checks do not go as 
far as they used to. Due to rising costs of inflation, which 
translates to higher rents, groceries, clothing, and gas 
prices, our neighbors are turning to ECCO to help fill the gap.
    The best part about volunteering are the people you meet 
and get to know as real folks. For example, I will call her Ms. 
Harrison, a 72-year-old woman who is in desperate need. She 
lived on a fixed income and she got by, but now she faces a new 
challenge when three teenage grandchildren have come to live 
with her and depend on her care. She told me she could not feed 
them if it was not for ECCO, and she gave me a big hug.
    Helping real people face real problems really makes 
volunteering worthwhile. The reason I volunteer is the joy we 
all receive from meeting neighbors and standing beside them in 
difficult times in their lives. Our slogan, ``Neighbors helping 
neighbors'' sums it up for me.
    I see ECCO as an organization that is committed to their 
mission, is well organized, ethical, and well managed. Our team 
of volunteers work together like a family. It helps and 
supports each other in caring for our clients.
    Our plans for the upcoming year are to extend our reach 
into more rural communities that are north and west of Mount 
Pleasant. These communities have tremendous need and fewer 
resources for help. Thirty percent of our clients live in rural 
communities and depend on ECCO to make ends meet. These 
communities are food deserts. In addition, transportation and 
distance create access issues.
    ECCO continues to serve as we see the needs arise, but it 
is only possible to meet those needs because of the support 
from our community. It is great to work with dedicated 
volunteers, and an organization committed to serving others is 
truly what being a neighbor is about.
    Thank you so much for allowing me to share my experience.
    The Chairman. Mr. Gilroy, thanks very much for your 
testimony. Our final witness for statement is Elayne Masters. 
Elayne, you may begin.

            STATEMENT OF ELAYNE MASTERS, NUTRITION 
       ADVOCATE, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, GIBSONIA, PENNSYLVANIA

    Ms. Masters. Chairman Casey, Ranking Member Scott, and 
members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify 
today and for hearing the stories of people like me as you work 
to address hunger and nutrition among the aging population. My 
name is Elayne Masters, and I am 65 years old. I was a self-
employed writer/editor for 20 years and became a single mom 
when I divorced because of domestic violence. I live alone in 
Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. My 
significant other and I spend as much time together as 
possible. My son and daughter live two hours away. My son and 
his wife are in Erie, and my daughter is heading to New Mexico 
for graduate school.
    My disability is not obvious, but I have PCS, persistent 
concussive symptoms, resulting from a brain injury. Direct care 
workers support me in living independently by letting me do 
what I safely can and helping when necessary, because most 
people do not understand disabilities they cannot see, I 
campaign for reform so others with invisible disabilities can 
access programs and services necessary to live healthier, 
fuller, and more independent lives.
    In 2009, the industry I worked in changed, and I found 
myself struggling to meet my budget. When I reached out for 
help from a partner organization of the Greater Pittsburgh 
Community Food Bank, they directed me to their food pantry. 
Surviving as a single mom meant managing a tight budget, so 
when business was slow I attended the pantry to supplement the 
groceries I purchased. I appreciated the pantry's community 
garden that provided fresh fruits and vegetables during the 
growing season.
    As my business gained momentum, I aspired to break free 
from depending on social services. Yet every time I tried to 
manage on my own, another hiccup would occur in my life, and I 
would be back in the pantry line.
    In February 2014, my mother became ill, and I spent the 
next two-plus years providing care for her in hospitals and in 
my home. I gave her a better quality of life than she would 
have received otherwise, and I have never regretted what I gave 
up for her.
    Late on a November evening in 2015, I was exhausted and 
took a nose dive down my basement stairs. I bounced off of each 
side wall and landed on the top of my head, sustaining a 
traumatic brain injury. Many of my symptoms lingered and caused 
a total and permanent disability, qualifying me for Medicare, 
Medicaid, and the Medicaid home and community-based services 
waiver program.
    In addition, I have Lyme disease and hypothyroidism. These 
conditions cause neuro-inflammation that results in brain fog, 
flooding, and fatigue. My sense of balance is impaired. I get 
confused, start stuttering, repeat myself, and miss important 
information in a conversation. Fatigue can shut me down for 
hours or days.
    Eating healthy foods is critical for me to maintain, let 
alone improve, my health and to support my independence. I am 
grateful for SNAP because I can choose my own foods. However, 
when I am buying more healthy proteins and vegetables, I run 
out of benefits by the third week of the month. Thankfully, I 
still have the food pantry to provide additional fresh and 
frozen meats, dairy, fruits, and vegetables.
    I love growing vegetables in my backyard. Being able to buy 
the plants with SNAP is great, but I wish I could shop at 
locations like local garden nurseries. I would also love to be 
able to buy hot meals with SNAP when I do not have the stamina 
to cook. It seems silly that I can buy a cold roasted chicken 
that is dry when I reheated it instead of a hot, juicy one.
    The Senior Farmers Market Voucher is one of my favorite 
programs because the produce is usually locally grown, organic, 
and fresh. Most of the markets that accept the voucher are in 
Pittsburgh, so my direct care workers take me since I am unable 
to drive in city traffic. It would be nice if the voucher 
amount could be increased and it could be used toward home-
delivered community-supported agriculture, or CSA, produce 
boxes.
    I used to receive the Senior Food Box once a month. It 
would help me if there were fewer processed foods, a little 
more variety, and quantities more suited to a one-person 
household. For example, I cannot possibly go through two large 
boxes of cereal each month. Also, the senior box itself is a 
bit heavy for me to carry.
    Finally, home-delivered meals have been a godsend, 
especially after my most recent hospitalization. While I was 
convalescing, I could grab one out of the freezer and have a 
quick meal. I am encouraged to learn that the needs of older 
adults will receive more focus as new dietary guidelines are 
established so that more of us can benefit from the service.
    All of these programs provide invaluable benefits to older 
Americans. I believe that the key to improving them is to offer 
more flexibility, more access to healthy foods, and more 
efforts to reduce barriers to access, like transportation, 
delivery options, and easier, simplified applications.
    Thank you for the opportunity to share my story and for 
considering the needs of older adults.
    The Chairman. Elayne, thanks so much for your testimony and 
for being willing to tell your story. That is one of the most 
significant parts of these hearings, when someone is able to, 
as you all have in one way or another, relate your own 
experiences.
    I was going to start with questions for you, but in the 
interest of time I want to make sure that folks know that on a 
day like today we have Senators that are in and out of 
hearings. For example, this morning Senator Warnock was here 
with us earlier. Senator Rick Scott also was here earlier, and 
he had to go to another engagement, another hearing. Senator 
Rosen is here, and I am going to cede my time to her so she can 
ask her questions and get to where she has to get to.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Senator Casey, Chairman Casey, 
Ranking Member Scott. This hearing is so important. All the 
hearings in this Committee are so thoughtful and relevant and 
important. I appreciate both of you organizing them, and I 
really appreciate you all for being here, sharing your stories, 
talking about your work and the impact it has and the needs 
that are out there and what it means. It is so important, just 
like the Chairman said, that we tell your stories and show your 
work, and help us put meaning behind the legislation that we do 
to support everyone around the country, and in this case 
seniors.
    You know, the flexibilities in meal delivery, I think is 
really important because I have heard from seniors all across 
Nevada about the success of the pandemic-related flexibilities 
of the grab-and-go meals, the drive-through options. We had 
drive-through options at all--maybe not all but almost all of 
our senior centers, all that could, and it has been really an 
important way to ensure that seniors continue to receive those 
healthy meals that they need, and even their caregivers could 
be driving through with them, if they are unable to drive.
    Moving forward, Nevada's senior centers are telling me they 
really want the ability to stay nimble so they can feed people. 
Nothing is more important than feeding people, right? We want 
to provide services so people can get them where they are.
    Dr. Walker, can you speak to how Georgia has approached the 
meal delivery over the last few years, how you have seen the 
drive-through option play out in your State, and how I believe 
making these flexibilities, some of them permanent would go 
such a long way in serving our communities?
    Dr. Walker. Absolutely. Thank you for the question, Senator 
Rosen. Certainly in Georgia, with the pandemic, we definitely 
leveraged drive-through meal options for our seniors, and also 
even extended that option where we turned our transportation 
that would bring seniors to the senior centers when they were 
open to then be the sources by which we could get meals out.
    Certainly the seniors have, in our senior centers as well 
as our Area Agencies on Aging, have said that absolutely, 
allowing for these flexibilities have been huge, and with all 
of our senior centers not being fully open, having this drive-
through option is one that has definitely been of value and 
continues to be used still in Georgia.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. I kind of want to build on that 
for the other witnesses because we have been able to use 
technology in nutrition. I co-sponsored the Expanding SNAP 
Options Act. It was included in the American Rescue Plan. It is 
going to increase those online purchasing options for the SNAP 
program, where you can have things delivered right to your 
door. Maybe you do not need the two boxes of cereal--one small 
box is fine--we can better use those resources, and I am 
pleased that through those efforts Nevada seniors and their 
families have access to 15 online SNAP retailers. Of course, we 
need to reduce more barriers because only 48 percent of 
eligible seniors enroll in the SNAP program, I think partially 
because of concerns over application process and unfamiliarity 
with technology.
    Mr. Everett and then Dr. Walker, in the time we have left 
can both of you talk about the role that we think technology 
can play in getting some of these healthy, tailored to that 
person's household, options delivered right to their door?
    Mr. Everett. Absolutely, Senator Rosen. I completely agree. 
I think it is a great question. When we have opportunities to 
strengthen accessibility and make SNAP a more user-friendly 
program, people will use it. I think we have been able to see 
that. We certainly saw that during the pandemic, by increasing 
SNAP benefits. That made it more accessible for folks and made 
the process of going through the application process a more 
warranted process for them to go through, but purchasing online 
makes SNAP inherently more accessible, particularly for folks 
that are still a little bit nervous about going into a grocery 
store, with rising rates of the flu as well as COVID, so we 
know that our older adults certainly prefer this option.
    Now, increasing and simplifying the way in which they 
engage technology is also critical, and so since Nevada is such 
a rural State in many respects, making sure that everybody has 
access to broadband, so all these things are ultimately 
interconnected when we are looking at SNAP accessibility for 
the older adult population.
    Senator Rosen. I could not agree more. Dr. Walker?
    Dr. Walker. Yes, I agree, Senator Rosen, that technology 
has been a big part of this. I want to, I guess, take this 
opportunity to highlight that because of the pandemic we had to 
figure out how we were going to leverage more of technology 
where we could, and so things like increasing access to tablets 
for our seniors has meant that they have begun, where they 
might not have been comfortable, both as staff and as senior 
directly, to be able to use this system to leverage technology 
in a sense to just reach out, to get nutrition education, and 
so now this step of now being able to access more ways to get 
your groceries online is one that seniors can be more receptive 
to.
    That also opens up our opportunity to work with our 
community partners who have been great in-the-gap organizations 
for us, to be able to help seniors who cannot just easily 
navigate these services and be able to say, ``Okay, what do you 
need? We will order it for you and get it there,'' and our 
being the pickup persons themselves, so this has been huge.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. 
Chairman. I really appreciate you yielding.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Rosen.
    We will turn next to Ranking Member Scott.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. Gilroy, you said something that I thought was spot on, 
that the checks just do not go as far as they used to. I would 
love for you to expand upon that a little bit, but can you help 
us understand not just the numbers but the people who are 
affected by the impact of inflation and rising prices? I would 
love to hear your thoughts.
    Mr. Gilroy. You know, I think what we are seeing are people 
that are not on these programs for life but we are kind of 
filling a gap for them. You know, every statistic has a face, 
and I think that is the important piece to always consider.
    I think of a gentleman, a 65-year-old retired construction 
worker, who was getting by but his refrigerator went out, and 
faced with the additional cost, it caused him to fall behind on 
his rent, fall behind on his utilities, and he came to us, and 
we were able to provide food, personal hygiene items, get his 
rent caught up, and pay his utilities off, and it just allowed 
him to get out of a tough spot and be able to get back into a 
normal life, and he is now not using our services, and I think 
that is kind of our goal is to kind of be a stopgap, an area 
that we can help people that are facing short-term issues, and 
get them back on the road.
    I think he is a perfect example, and there are several 
people that we deal with on a short-term basis that we provide 
a couple of bags of groceries, some cleaning supplies, and some 
help, and it gets them through the month.
    Senator Tim Scott. Well, thank you, and one of the things 
that Ms. Masters spoke about as well is that stopgap, being 
able to use assistance in the fourth week of the month, since 
the three-weeks worked. That is a really important point that 
you made, Ms. Masters, as well as Mr. Gilroy.
    I would love to ask you to maybe, Mr. Gilroy, reflect on--I 
missed the number. I think it was 23 percent of your 
grandparents are supporting grandkids in their households. That 
number seems about right to me. Maybe even a little higher in 
certain communities, but the truth is I would love for you to 
talk about the impact of that as well.
    Mr. Gilroy. Well, you know, I think the issue that we have 
is people living on fixed incomes are getting by. They have 
figured out how to do that, but then all of a sudden their life 
is disrupted by having additional people in the household and 
being responsible to care for them, and, you know, I go back to 
the woman that I had mentioned. I mean, she was getting by, but 
all of a sudden here are three teenagers. I cannot imagine 
three teenagers in the house and how much groceries they would 
eat.
    Senator Tim Scott. Yes.
    Mr. Gilroy. She came to us and we were able to help them 
out, and I think there are a fair amount of people that we see 
that are facing similar issues, where life all of a sudden 
changes for them, and they do not know how to deal with it, and 
it is just an honor to work with ECCO to know that we are 
helping people out.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Mr. Gilroy. I have one more 
question for you. I will say that it was two or three years 
ago, Mr. Chairman, when the number came out that about 48, 49 
percent of Americans did not have more than $500 in their 
savings account, so having been that American when I was a 
younger adult, realizing that when your tire goes, when you 
blow a tire, it is not just a bad day. It is a crisis. When 
your refrigerator goes out, it is not just an alarming 
situation. It is a crisis. When you have three young boys move 
into your house, let us pray. That might be more than a crisis. 
That is a challenge. I know how much I ate when I was a kid--
and I know how much I eat now.
    The truth is that so many of our nation's, the American 
families, when they have a single incident happen, it is not 
just uncomfortable or, gosh, I wish that would not have 
happened. It leads to a crisis, and then the domino effect that 
we sometimes do not really appreciate, when one thing goes down 
it is a multiplier effect, and it really hard to catch up.
    Hearing about the organizations that help folks catch up 
and get back to plateau to a place where they could sustain 
themselves I think is a really important part of the 
consideration we should have, as Congress, moving forward as 
well.
    Mr. Gilroy, the one question I did have for you, and I 
thought it was an interesting concept, the point system, so 
that you are making sure that the folks that are benefiting 
from the food programs are having a balanced diet. Will you 
just walk us through, in 30 seconds or so, how that point 
system works?
    Mr. Gilroy. Well, basically we have a navigator that does 
intake for a client and determines both how many people are in 
their household as well as any kind of health issues that they 
may have, and so they are assigned a certain amount of points, 
and the points then are given out on a monthly basis, and they 
are designed so they can order directly online what they want, 
which I think is a big step forward, that you get what you 
want, not what I want to give you.
    Senator Tim Scott. Yes.
    Mr. Gilroy. I think that has a very positive impact for our 
clients, but we also design it so that you cannot just get all 
soda. You get so many of every different food category, so it 
requires you to look in order at a more balanced meal than just 
looking at snacks or items that might be different than that.
    We also look at what their health issues might be, so if 
they are diabetic or have hypertension, we will design their 
selection. If you have hypertension you are not going to get 
salted green beans. You are only going to see low-salt green 
beans, and other items like that, so it is a simplified process 
to make it work, and do the best that we possibly can in both 
providing equality and food supply by the numbers of people and 
also provide some healthy patterns for our clients.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, sir. I love the point system 
and I do love the fact that you are taking into consideration 
the morbidities that individuals may have and the impact on the 
choices that they make.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member Scott.
    I will turn next to Senator Blumenthal.
    Senator Blumenthal. Thanks so much, Mr. Chairman, and 
thanks for holding this hearing because food insecurity and 
nutritional food is so important, obviously not only to our 
seniors but to everybody, to children as well as seniors, and 
we know that, according to Feeding America, about 5.2 million 
adults aged 60 or older have been food insecure in 2020. In 
Connecticut, it is estimated that 6.6 percent of older adults 
are food insecure during that same year, 2020.
    This problem is more invisible than apparent because that 
food insecurity is largely hidden in homes that are unvisited 
and places where people may not want to talk about it.
    What I want to focus on is the sources of potential food to 
solve that problem because in America today 40 percent of all 
food goes to waste. Let me repeat--40 percent of all the food 
produced in America is unused. Often it goes to landfills where 
it contributes to contamination of our air and water. It 
consists of vegetables or produce that is discarded by 
supermarkets because it just does not look quite right, and so 
they want to get it off the shelves, even though it is 
perfectly good, because it has some dark marks or some bruises.
    We have all eaten fruit that has some bruises. We have all 
eaten vegetables that may not be same-day delivery to the 
store. We have all eaten cheese that may have some mold on it. 
Cut away the mold. I do that quite a bit down in D.C., because 
I am here only three nights a week, generally.
    The challenge for America, it seems to me, is how to make 
better use of food that is discarded by supermarkets, by 
restaurants, by people from their own refrigerators who are 
given a sell-by date which, for them, means that food is 
unusable after that date, when it perfectly good, but the 
supermarket wants you to think that you need to buy more of it.
    I have introduced a measure called the Food Donation 
Improvement Act of 2021. This legislation would eliminate some 
of the legal roadblocks and obstacles that discourage food 
donations by restaurant, retailers, and others, create an 
opportunity for more nutritious food going to people who need 
it.
    The challenge is not a simple one but it is solvable, and 
in many respects new technology gives us more information about 
what food is likely to go to waste within what period of time, 
on supermarket shelves or in restaurants, and there are some 
companies in Connecticut that are using that technology to 
advise sellers of food.
    I would be interested to hear from anyone who wants to 
volunteer about your thoughts on that topic.
    Mr. Everett. I am happy to speak to it, Senator. Thank you 
for your comment. You are right. Food waste is an enormous 
issue in the United States and around the world. We throw away 
or waste about 100 billion pounds of food, which, if you were 
to run the numbers, that is essentially enough to ensure that 
all food insecure people in the United States would have access 
to three meals a day, so that would effectively wipe out the 
problem if we were better able to utilize those resources.
    Now some of that food, you know, it is not pound for pound 
in terms of what people will need for a whole, healthy diet, 
but it is a huge issue, and so we are not only creating higher 
rates of food insecurity because we are not better utilizing 
that food, we are also hurting the environment at the same 
time, so anything that we can do. One of the programs that our 
students run at Baylor University, where our collaborative is, 
is they recover the food from all of our cafeterias on the 
campus. They recover all of the food that is prepared but not 
served, so instead of it being thrown away they repurpose it 
for afterschool programs, for senior centers, for different 
types of interventions, and for students who may not otherwise 
have access to food.
    That is a simple way that we are able to reduce thousands 
of pounds of food going into landfills, and we are putting it 
into places that can help reduce food insecurity, so I 
appreciate you highlighting that issue.
    Senator Blumenthal. Thank you. My time has expired. I thank 
the Chairman. Do we have another comment from one of the 
witnesses?
    The Chairman. Dr. Walker?
    Dr. Walker. Yes, Senator Blumenthal. I would love to just 
say that, yes, we actually also have--and I guess this is the 
National Organization of Campus Kitchens that has been helping 
to leverage that.
    I will say, from our end, one of the elements in our State 
Plan to Address Senior Hunger includes food waste and 
reclamation, and though we are still in early stages, part of 
that is to make sure that we are looking at it from the senior 
themselves all the way up to organizations to kind of leverage 
that partnership.
    I think knowledge is power, that oftentimes what goes to 
waste is really that we do not have those connections of people 
in between, so we are excited in Georgia to have organizations 
like Gooder that helps to be that bridge between this is where 
the food is and this is where it needs to go, as far as 
organizations, and then, of course, that making sure that in 
our Department of Natural Resources that we are providing the 
proper funding for those food waste supports is a critical part 
of that, so we can have sort either a State or Federal strategy 
to think about that, because knowledge is really the issue 
here, so that we can build that bridge, but I love that you are 
focusing on that. It is very important.
    Senator Blumenthal. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Blumenthal.
    We will turn next to Senator Braun.
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Before I got to the Senate I ran a company for 37 years, 
and in the last probably 10 to 15 years of it, when health 
insurance costs were just going through the roof, we fixed 
that, number one, by making the system based upon good 
nutrition, good living, wellness, and it was a great 
investment. When you look at the community of older Americans 
it is even more important, especially if you have sown the 
seeds of good nutrition early on in life.
    The other thing I have noticed, from serving on a school 
board, the State legislature, and even here, is that you have 
got to have the right mechanism to actually put these things 
into play.
    My first question is for Mr. Everett. We have got an entity 
back home in Indiana called AgriNovus, and it is a prime 
example of letting the private sector, where they are going to 
probably have a little bit better feel for the lay of the land, 
and their mission has been to find out how you connect with the 
older American communities and be there through businesses, and 
maybe some of your local government, to reach out to them with 
not only news on what the best and latest is for nutrition but 
maybe some of the technology that you can even use to dispense 
it.
    I think my question is going to be then, give me your 
opinion on how do we incentivize more of that private sector 
collaboration with local government, and maybe at the largest 
scale, State governments, to bring innovative, create new 
opportunities to tackle these food-related issues directly with 
the older American community?
    Mr. Everett. Senator Braun, thank you for the question, and 
thank you for your leadership in the space to address hunger, 
and the way in which you helped lead the efforts with White 
House Hunger Conference. We are very grateful for all of your 
leadership in this particular space.
    Senator Braun. You are welcome. Pleasure to do it.
    Mr. Everett. Well, you know, I think what we talk about all 
the time is that we try to marry, at the collaborative research 
proximity and public policy, so when you think about that, if 
we misidentify the realities and the causes of food insecurity, 
then we are almost always going to develop solutions that do 
not work. Bryan Stevenson say you cannot understand a social 
problem from a distance. You have to have proximity to the 
problem.
    I believe when you marry proximity, as you are talking 
about, people who are embedded in communities on a daily basis, 
and they are seeing this issue, they are either experiencing it 
themselves or they are organizations that are addressing it on 
the front line, if you marry that with research we are better 
able to accurately identify what are scalable solutions to 
address these issues.
    I also believe that no one sector can end hunger alone. 
This is not just a Federal Government issue. This is not a 
local congregation issue. It is an all-of-the-above issue, so 
when you bring business together with government, nonprofit 
organizations, and faith communities, even universities, that 
is when we see transformative change happen.
    I will say one thing, that when I served on the 
congressional Commission we saw that food insecurity looked 
very different in rural America than it did in urban America, 
and we did not have any targeted outreach, so our team worked 
with the private sector and with USDA to launch a program 
called Meals-to-You, where we mailed boxes of food to children 
who lived in remote America, so remote that we literally took 
seaplanes and mule teams and UPS trucks all over America to get 
food to kids when the shutdown happened.
    The same type of innovation has to be leveraged for our 
senior adult population. With the rate in which they are 
growing, we have got to develop some targeted interventions, 
and it is going to take business being a leader in that 
process.
    Senator Braun. Thank you. Very good.
    Final question will be for Mr. Gilroy. Back in Indiana I 
talk to so many places that are in the business of trying to 
get food to those most in need, grappling with not only the 
high cost of food, the recent inflation, on getting what they 
need on their shelves, to get to the folks that need it, but 
probably as big an issue is how do you keep employees? Are you 
wrestling with that side of it when it has been difficult, 
especially as we have navigated through COVID, and we are out 
of that now. Are you seeing improvement? At ECCO, describe how 
you have managed through that, and are you seeing light at the 
end of the tunnel when it comes to costs of what you are trying 
to get out to folks in need, the supplies, and then how about 
staffing as well?
    Mr. Gilroy. Well, you know, cost is a big thing that we are 
facing every day, and we are always looking for access to more 
donations, to be perfectly honest, so we can buy food to feed 
people.
    The other issue that we are seeing, we have an army of 
volunteers, and I think tapping into them is a huge godsend 
because we do not pay them anything, and they have time on 
their hands, and it works out very effectively to get them 
involved in a process and expand their role to fill slots that 
we are not able to fill. You know, getting people back to work 
has been very difficult, and it is nice to be able to see the 
volunteers step up and take a role in providing that.
    Senator Braun. Well, it is good to hear that that is 
occurring, because having stuff go up in cost is one thing. Not 
having the staff to be there to deliver the goods is another, 
so I thank you for your insight.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Braun.
    I will pose some questions now. I wanted to start with--and 
I might have a little bit of extra time, but I wanted to start 
with Elayne Masters. Elayne, I want to thank you for your 
testimony and again for traveling here to be with us, as I 
thank all the witnesses for doing that.
    I wanted to start by asking about your story that you 
provided by way of your testimony today. You highlighted the 
role that Federal nutrition programs play in meeting your 
nutritional needs. In your testimony you said, and I am 
quoting, ``Eating healthy foods is critical for you to 
maintain, let alone improve your health and to support your 
independence.''
    I understand that you appreciate the SNAP program, the 
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, because you can 
choose your own foods, and access, as you call it, a greater 
variety of fresh foods. You also noted that you enjoy using 
your Senior Farmers Market Voucher because you can purchase 
locally grown fresh food.
    I would ask you, can you share with the Committee why 
programs like SNAP or the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition 
Program, as well as the home-delivered meals program, why they 
are helpful to you?
    Ms. Masters. Absolutely. I had resisted signing up for SNAP 
for years. I felt that as long as I was self-employed, I was 
working, I would leave those funds for someone more in need, 
but when I became disabled, not only did I have this invisible 
disability but I became part of the invisible poor. You would 
not know that I needed support, so to have programs like this 
available to me, in a period of time where I struggled, do I 
sign up for SNAP, do I not, there were a lot of processed 
foods, a lot of sugars, a lot of fats, a lot of high-sodium 
things that negatively impacted my health, so when I finally 
gave in and went on the SNAP program I could go and buy fresh 
produce. I could buy healthier proteins, and I could actually, 
after having done a lot of research about what my body needed, 
I could buy those things, and I did not have to worry about 
when is my next meal going to come, what is it going to look 
like, how is it going to hurt me or help me?
    These programs have helped me to address my health needs, 
to feel, you know, just a sense of comfort and alleviation of 
the stress that is involved with dealing with those topics. It 
has enabled me to have more energy and to focus more on healing 
than how am I going to just survive.
    The Chairman. That is very helpful, and it is not based 
upon some analysis you did. It is based upon your own life, and 
that is especially insightful.
    I will come back, Elayne, to you in a moment.
    I wanted to move to a question for both Mr. Everett and Dr. 
Walker. You highlighted in your testimony that Federal 
nutrition assistance programs are essential to reducing senior 
hunger. This Committee is celebrating the impact of 50 years of 
the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program and the release of 
our annual report and the Committee fact sheet, as I mentioned.
    We also know that our Nation's aging population is expected 
to grow exponentially, and that might be even an 
understatement, in the coming years, and the Federal nutrition 
programs must be both strengthened and protected, both improved 
and uplifted.
    What have the Older Americans Act and USDA nutrition 
programs meant to older adults who need nutritional support?
    Maybe we will start with Mr. Everett and then move to Dr. 
Walker.
    Mr. Everett. Well, they are critical interventions, so we 
often cite that more than 50 percent of the eligible older 
adults for the SNAP program do not participate, but for those 
who do it is a lifeline, and so I think particularly when you 
are on a fixed income, I mean, when you are on a fixed income, 
and if you are a grandfamily, you can imagine what that is like 
for an individual who may have projected what they needed to 
retire on, but if they have a fixed income and now, all of a 
sudden, as Ranking Member Scott said, they are taking care of 
three teenage kids, it is not like they get a raise in order to 
do so, and so programs like SNAP, the senior meals program, the 
congregate meal programs, as well as Meals on Wheels programs 
are a lifeline to families who find themselves in those 
circumstances.
    The Chairman. Dr. Walker?
    Dr. Walker. Well, Mr. Everett talked a lot about the farm 
bill so I will take this opportunity to add that element for 
the Older Americans Act services as well, to say that there has 
been a great marriage in the fact that when we get seniors on 
services for Older Americans Act services, they are able to 
better leverage our farm bill services as well, and so even 
though for us we have not instituted different visions, that 
has been a great catch in connecting our seniors once they make 
that first step. Just as Ms. Masters has stated, to make that 
choice to come forward, you start to learn about other services 
that are available, so that has been really huge is that 
oftentimes we find if you qualify for one program you likely 
qualify for others, so it has been huge to really provide a 
nice wraparound option for our seniors who are most in need.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Doctor. My last question will be 
for Elayne Masters. Elayne, you shared in your testimony that 
you appreciate both fresh fruits and vegetables, and I 
understand you purchase plants to grow vegetables in your 
backyard with the SNAP benefits that you receive and that you 
participate in, as you mentioned earlier, the Senior Farmers 
Market Nutrition Program, and that a local food pantry has had 
a community garden to support participants in eating both 
healthy and fresh fruits and vegetables in the past.
    Can you share more about how you currently access fresh 
foods and what more can be done to ensure that older adults and 
adults with disabilities have reliable access to these types of 
products?
    Ms. Masters. Absolutely. Thank you for the question, 
Senator Casey.
    The fact that I can grow some of my own foods, by being 
able to purchase plants with SNAP, is just a tremendous 
opportunity. I can just pick something off the vine in my own 
backyard, but having the farm bill and being able to go to a 
farmers market where, you know, things have just been picked at 
the farms and brought to the market, allows me to have produce 
that is going to keep a little longer in my refrigerator, that 
I do not have to cook up all that day, so that is great.
    The food banks supplement what I get at the grocery store, 
so having food bank items allows me to be a little more 
targeted in what I use with SNAP, so to be able to use SNAP at 
a farmers market, which we have at least one in Pittsburgh, 
where you can buy chips and buy fresh produce in addition to 
what you are using from your farm bill voucher, is just 
wonderful. Being able to shop at a variety of stores that do 
accept these benefits allows me to shop around, get the best 
price, get the best bang for my buck, if you will, for the 
produce and healthy proteins that I am buying.
    You know, being able to shop online when I am having a 
rough day. Some days I am not able to get to the store, do not 
have a direct care worker available, and so to be able to shop 
online and have either things ready for pickup or delivery, it 
is a wonderful option.
    You know, I think in terms of additional supports, as was 
mentioned by Dr. Walker and Mr. Everett, the cumbersome 
application process is difficult. Some of us just, you know, it 
may be due to stress or our age, but filling out applications 
can be tough and can be a barrier.
    Having transportation options and delivery options is key. 
The produce is there. The food is there. If you cannot get to 
it, it really does not do you any good, so the role that 
deliveries can do, and possibly having, through the farm bill, 
a delivery option to get a CSA produce box, would be absolutely 
fantastic.
    I really appreciate, Senator Casey, your work with 
developing nutrition guidelines for older adults. We have 
different needs, and we have different conditions, so that is 
going to be really essential in how we see food as medicine 
moving forward, so thank you all so much for this work.
    The Chairman. Thanks very much. I will turn next to Ranking 
Member Scott for a question, or two.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. 
It will likely be one question, but who really knows at this 
point.
    One of the things that we talk a lot about is making sure 
that our senior are able to eat well, a very important part. 
One of the points, Mr. Everett, that I have come across and I 
think is incredibly important is that more than a third of 
older individuals suffer from loneliness, and some have 
suggested that loneliness is as dangerous as smoking 15 
cigarettes a day.
    I am not sure that we could not use an entire hearing on 
the negative consequences and impacts that loneliness is having 
on our seniors across the country. I would love to dig into the 
information, Dr. Walker, and perhaps be able to see the 
increasing levels of loneliness and the increasing levels of 
prescriptions for antidepressants in our seniors because of 
loneliness.
    I think this is an incredibly important topic that we do 
not spend a lot of time on, and frankly, we probably do not 
even recognize the negative impact that loneliness is having on 
too many people in too many places and perhaps preventable if 
we were able to do, not only as Members of Congress but just as 
family members and friends and community members, to stay in 
touch and engage with our seniors where they are, whether it is 
through Facetime or in person, but look for new ways for us to 
bridge the gap, where too many people are living alone, and 
that seems to be growing, Mr. Everett or Dr. Walker, in the 
time I have remaining.
    Dr. Walker. Thank you, Senator Scott, for the question. 
This is so timely to talk about social isolation. We actually 
just hired a team of two to come in with our Division of Aging 
Services and do a deep dive on social isolation. This is a two-
year project to look at what services we offer and that expands 
out from our engagements in person, how critical it is to have 
our seniors come to our senior centers, because it is not just 
about the meal. That engagement with each other, with the 
staff, participating in the other programming is a critical 
part of addressing social isolation, but also looking at as we 
talk about the importance of technologies and accessing that 
way, what roles can we use for seniors who are online, using 
tablets and things like that, so this is an important topic, 
and so we are working on trying to address how can we bridge 
that.
    Senator Tim Scott. I would love to see the followup to 
whatever the 2-year study produces please.
    Dr. Walker. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, ma'am. Mr. Everett?
    Mr. Everett. I appreciate the question. You know, I come 
from a Christian-faith tradition and so we think about Jesus 
saying, ``I was hungry and you gave me food.'' Some of my 
brothers and sisters who come from the Hindu tradition have a 
passage of scripture that says, ``To give food is to give 
life.'' If you think about that as a double meaning, most of 
the time when we are eating food we are eating with our friends 
and our family members, and so you think about the double 
conundrum of food insecurity is oftentimes you are experiencing 
that in social isolation.
    When we think about interventions like Meals on Wheels, 
that is one of my favorite interventions that we have as a 
nation because you have, many times, volunteers in the local 
community providing hot meals every day to individuals who are 
living in isolation.
    My grandparents were living with early stages of 
Alzheimer's. We were unaware as a family that they were missing 
meals on a regular basis. It was not until their doctor 
identified that they had been missing those meals, and we found 
out when they were not missing meals they were getting in a car 
and driving to the local Sonic where they would get a hot dog, 
so when they were eating, they did not eat food with a high 
nutritional value, so their church sprang into action and 
created a Meals on Wheels program, partnered with the local 
community Meals on Wheels, to be able to ensure that they would 
have access to food on a regular basis. That type of 
intervention was a lifesaving intervention for my grandparents 
and assured that latter stages of their lives were lives that 
were well lived.
    The issue is that most Meals on Wheels programs around the 
country have a very long waiting list, and so I think when we 
talk about seeing this growing population who are 
disproportionately experiencing high rates of food insecurity, 
one way that we can reduce social isolation as well as address 
hunger is to greater resource programs like Meals on Wheels so 
that we can get food to families who need it the most.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Mr. Everett. I am a big fan 
of Matthew 25 myself as it relates to the good that we should 
do for our fellow citizens, and from the Jewish tradition, 
Tikkun Olam, to repair the world. I think one of the ways that 
we could think about that in a different way is through the 
prism of loneliness, especially as it impacts our seniors. 
Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member Scott. I have been 
told that Senator Gillibrand wants to ask a question or two 
virtually.
    Senator Gillibrand. Yes. Thank you so much, Senator Casey.
    Americans should not have to worry about where their next 
meal will come from. Yet in 2020, 6.8 percent, or 5.2 million 
older Americans were food insecure, and in my State of New 
York, an estimated 7.6 percent of older adults are food 
insecure. Older adults of racial and ethnic minorities and 
those who live below the poverty line are disproportionately 
impacted by food insecurity. Food insecurity can impair 
nutrition, increasing the likelihood of chronic health 
conditions among older adults and reducing capacity for active, 
healthy, and independent life.
    I recently sent a bicameral, bipartisan letter that Senator 
Sanders and two Members of Congress co-led with me to 
appropriator requesting that the final Fiscal Year 2023 
appropriations bill include $1.93 billion in funding for older 
Americans, Older Americans Act programs, and the Older 
Americans Act Title III Senior Nutrition Services, which 
critically support the delivery of nutritious meals to older 
adults throughout the country.
    Mr. Everett, thank you for sharing some of your work in 
promoting affordable and healthy food. How would strong OAA 
funding improve Baylor's Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty's 
threefold strategy for cultivating solutions to end hunger? How 
can strong OAA funding bolster multisectoral cooperation?
    Mr. Everett. Thank you, Senator. To begin with, I would say 
one way in which this is going to have a huge impact is 
families or senior adults who are grandfamilies. This was an 
issue that came up earlier, and I just want to say the 
importance of this particular intervention for grandfamilies, 
first of all.
    If you think about the average individual at a household 
level, and the insurmountable issues that they are trying to 
overcome, this particular funding, if they do not have access 
to transportation, or limited access to transportation, this 
funding provides resources to get food directly to their front 
porches, through food box programs, through Meals on Wheels 
interventions, and so without those supports that is going to 
put an additional amount of stress on that household who is 
living on a fixed income, which is also going to put stress on 
those children who are being raised in those contexts. We know 
that healthy children need adequate access to food as well.
    This particular funding package would increase resources to 
the individual on the local level, which would have downstream 
effect not only on the positive impacts of health but the 
quality of life for children that they are oftentimes finding 
themselves raising.
    Senator Gillibrand. Well, thank you very much.
    In terms of barriers to healthy food access, a lot of older 
adults live with at least one chronic condition and take 
medications that often result in unique nutritional 
considerations. These conditions can create barriers in an 
individual's ability to access programs like SNAP and the 
Senior Farmers Markets and food banks.
    Lack of transportation can also hinder access to healthy 
meals. Limited access to reliable transportation, especially in 
rural areas, further complicates the more than 20 percent of 
older adults who do not drive. Finally, home-delivered meal 
programs are challenged by long-distance costs and limited 
working age population in rural communities. To help bridge 
this gap, 84 percent of Area Agencies on Aging offer nutrition 
programs to better provide for older adults.
    To Dr. Temitope Walker, based on your experience working 
with Georgia's 12 Area Agencies on Aging, how important is the 
role that the Area Agencies on Aging play in assisting older 
adults in accessing healthy and affordable food?
    Dr. Walker. The Area Agencies on Aging are truly the 
backbone of the work. They know their counties and what the 
needs are. In Georgia, for instance, we have an interesting mix 
of urban and rural spaces throughout the State. With 159 
counties, there is a lot of diversity of need and things are 
spread out, and some things are very close, so the AAAs are a 
critical connection for us to be able to understand where those 
pockets of senior centers and also the other supportive 
placements of other organizations in those areas, so that 
allows for that partnership.
    One of the great things for us is we have 12 senior hunger 
coalitions that are part of these AAAs, which allows us to 
invite nonprofits, for-profits, seniors, our staff, senior 
centers, and staff from those Area Agencies on Aging to come 
together to actually understand what the gaps are, the 
resources and opportunities are in those different regions, so 
our work would not happen, really, without the work of those 
AAAs providing that groundwork on what is happening in those 
regions.
    Senator Gillibrand. Thank you so much, and thank you, Mr. 
Chairman, for this hearing.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Gillibrand.
    We will now move to closing, and I will have a closing 
statement and then I will turn to Ranking Member Scott.
    We know that in today's hearing we heard powerful testimony 
about how Federal nutrition programs help to combat senior 
hunger, senior malnutrition, as well as food insecurity. We 
learned about some of the challenges that older adults face 
when they are trying to put food on the table. Our bipartisan 
Senior Nutrition Task Force Act will provide recommendations 
that enable the Federal Government to address senior hunger 
more holistically.
    However, we can and we should do more. I am going to be 
introducing, as well, the Tools for Ensuring Access to Meals 
Act. This will be Senate Bill 5095, which will provide funding 
to Administration for Community Living to implement the 
recommendations of the task force that will be created in the 
other piece of legislation, the Task Force Act.
    We must ensure that every senior is connected to 
nutritional programs and services. We know that continued 
bipartisan work by this Committee to address the nutrition 
needs of older adults can help buildupon the 50 years of 
benefits provided by the Older Americans Act nutrition 
programs. With the right investments and the right coordination 
our Federal senior nutrition programs can promote health and 
build community among participants. Congress must continue to 
support programs like the Older Americans Act Nutrition 
Program, Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, senior food 
boxes, and, of course, SNAP.
    We must also improve our efforts to streamline these 
programs and improve access. For example, many states, 
including my home State of Pennsylvania, participate in the 
Elderly Simplified Application Project, that goes by the 
acronym ESAP. This program makes it easier for older adults to 
apply for SNAP, because of this demonstration project and 
related efforts, an estimated 61 percent of eligible older 
Pennsylvanians are now enrolled in SNAP, which is higher than 
the national average. I would like that number to be 100, by 
the way, but 61 is better than about 47 nationally, those who 
are eligible and enrolled, so we still have work to do to make 
sure that every eligible senior is enrolled in SNAP.
    We know, as well, that more has to be done on these 
programs and on these issues, and that robust and timely data 
will enable Congress to make more targeted efforts to enroll 
eligible older adults in nutrition programming.
    I look forward to working with my colleagues on the 
Committee to further improve access to nutritious foods for 
older adults and to support their health and their 
independence.
    Before I turn to Ranking Member Scott for his closing 
comments I want to thank Ranking Member Scott for his work as a 
Committee member, but more recently, the last two years in this 
Congress as the Ranking Member. It is hard to believe that two 
years have gone by that fast, but I want to thank Tim for his 
leadership, his work, his bipartisan work, and the work of his 
staff, who have done such great work working with our staff on 
this Committee.
    Thank you to Ranking Member Scott, and I will now recognize 
him for his closing remarks.
    Senator Tim Scott. Thank you, Chairman Casey, for your 
leadership on this Committee. Without any question, so many 
Americans around the country wonder if Congress is irrevocably 
broken. Does anything ever happen in a bipartisan fashion? I 
think if you are looking for a way to see that things are not 
broken and that things do happen on a bipartisan path, it is 
here on the Aging Committee. There is no doubt that your 
leadership has been invaluable here, and it is a testament to 
who you are and the State you represent, and frankly, to the 
land of opportunity that we call America.
    We have so much that needs to be done and it is not blue or 
red. It is just red, white, and blue, and the more we focus on 
the American people, the more likely we are to find solutions 
that actually help the American people.
    I am thankful to your staff for all the hard work that they 
have done over the last two years, and certainly my staff has 
led me to where we are today, and I am so thankful that we both 
have been surrounded by such amazing professionals who are 
committed to the cause and who love America and love our 
seniors in this country.
    Thank you to the witnesses for taking your time and 
bringing your expertise to the table. It certainly is a 
privilege to know that our country is going to be better off 
the more time we spend engaging with one another, the more 
likely we are to find solutions.
    I certainly want to say to Mr. Gilroy, my witness from 
South Carolina, thank you for your hard work with ECCO, a 
community organization that has really helped so many families 
throughout South Carolina and certainly east of the Cooper, as 
you said.
    I think the best days of America are certainly ahead of 
her. It will take all of us to make that a reality, but I am 
confident that if we focus on those issues that are impacting 
the American people, that most will find the way forward.
    I do hope that in future Aging hearings that we do tackle 
the issue of loneliness in our seniors. I do hope that the day 
comes when we are having a serious conversation about how we 
deal with it, not necessarily on an equal par with food, 
nutrition, and the challenges that we have, but certainly a 
very close second to that reality.
    Fifty years later we are still celebrating the Older 
Americans Act Nutrition Program because it has been so 
effective. I hope a few years from now we are celebrating 
something new in the area of loneliness for our seniors. The 
more I read, the more I research, the more I realize that we 
have something that is sitting right in front of us that is so 
obvious, that we need to tackle that with the same vigilance 
that we have tackled the issue of nutrition.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. 
God bless.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Ranking Member Scott. Thanks so 
much, and I want to thank our witnesses again today--Mr. 
Everett, Dr. Walker, Ms. Gilroy, and Ms. Masters, and I want to 
thank each of you for taking the time to be here to provide 
your expertise and your personal experiences.
    For the record I am duty-bound to say if any Senators have 
additional questions for the witnesses or statements to be 
added the hearing record will be kept open for seven days, 
until December 23rd.
    Thank you all for participating. Happy Holidays. This 
concludes our hearing.
    [Whereupon, at 11:31 a.m., the Committee was adjourned.]

     
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