[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
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Michael Gamel-McCormick, Acting Majority Staff Director
Neri Martinez, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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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
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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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APPENDIX
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Prepared Witness Statements
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Questions for the Record
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Statements for the Record
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