A PROGRAM THAT FEEDS SENIORS AND THEIR FURRY COMPANIONS

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Studies show pets bring a level of joy and companionship to seniors who live alone. What does this have to do with hunger-related issues the elderly face? Taking care of a pet includes feeding, grooming and veterinary care, which can be financially burdensome and physically challenging to seniors. More often than not, a devoted animal lover with limited access to food will feed their hungry pet before they feed themselves.

One of Florida Impact to End Hunger’s community partners, Meals on Wheels of South Florida, has been providing nutritious meals to seniors for 35 years. Executive Director Mark Adler explains, “The need for this type of program became apparent when our volunteers who deliver meals observed that their elderly clients were going without their full meals because they were sharing their meals with their pets.”

Acknowledging that they were on a fixed budget and many were homebound and physically unable to buy pet food, Meals on Wheels secured funding to purchase pet food from local donors and grants. Hence the beginning of the Meals for Companion Pets Program.

Once a month, free pet food is delivered to clients with a maximum of 2 pets. This is especially important to homebound seniors who have no one to shop for their pet needs. This program can keep seniors and their pets together and healthy in their own homes. Sometimes a furry friend is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Please contact Meals On Wheels South Florida at 954-731-8770 for additional information on this amazing program or visit https://www.mowsoflo.org/meals-for-companion-pets.

Post written by Sue McAllister, Regional Director of Southeast Florida, Florida Impact to End Hunger

THE COMPLICATIONS OF ELDER FOOD INSECURITY

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“I believe every patient needs a physician who will be an advocate to help them regain their health.” – Dr. Jenneffer Pulapaka, DPM, ACFAS, CWSP, DABMSP, FACCWS

How does food insecurity impact our elderly population? From 2001 to 2015, the number of older adults who were food insecure more than doubled to 5.4 million individuals in the United States. Food insecurity was reported to affect all aspects of their life and health, along with increasing stress and reducing coping abilities. There is “increasing evidence demonstrating that food insecurity is an important risk factor for poor health has made it virtually incontrovertible that dietary quality, not just calories, is an essential component of supporting food security”. Furthermore, food insecurity is associated with an increased risk for numerous chronic conditions, including depression, insomnia, substance abuse, diabetes mellitus type 2, obesity, hypertension, coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, dyslipidemia, and chronic kidney disease.

How is this different from adults or children?

Elderly patients with multiple chronic conditions/diseases were significantly more likely to report food insecurity. For many of the food insecure elderly, there is a “stigma effect arising from welfare use” that may lead to reduced self-esteem and result in depressive moods, which exacerbates chronic diseases. “To make matters worse, food insecurity is associated with increased cost-related medication non-adherence. Because if you don’t have money for food, one probably doesn’t have money for medications. Hence, contributing to an increased burden on our healthcare system, as noted in the 2017 Rand Report.

Sadly, numerous research papers report that adults with depression have higher rates or levels of multiple chronic disease risk factors, including cardiovascular disease, dyslipidemia, hypertension, insomnia, substance abuse, diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, physical inactivity, and systemic inflammation.

Elderly SNAP participants with very low food security have even higher odds of depression and correlated with negative self-attitudes. But, there is now research that is beginning to delve into whether reforms to the food assistance program aimed at reducing stigma can help alleviate emotional distress and increase the quality of food among the elderly welfare recipients.

With that noted, SNAP does not cause these problems, like obesity; rather, it is likely that more obese populations are enrolled in SNAP. Adults can use SNAP to one’s advantage because the 2019 study reported that very low food security and physical health outcomes were negatively significant before SNAP enrollment. But, decreased after SNAP participation, indicating that SNAP may have prevented poor physical health resulting from very low food security. So, on the positive side, SNAP is associated with a reduction in health care costs; “low-income adults who participate in SNAP incur an average of $1,400 per year less in health care expenditures compared with matched nonparticipants ” and “perceived farmers’ market access related to lower incidence of overweight/obesity in SNAP”.

Elder food insecurity is a complicated and dynamic construct involving chronic medical conditions, mental fitness, and the overall lifestyle of our communities. The takeaway is that there are ways to improve the health and wellness of our society regardless of income; through healthful foods, social support, quality sleep, physical fitness, positive emotions, and cessation of substance abuse. So, how will you uplift your community in 2020?

Dr. Jenneffer Pulapaka

Podiatric Surgeon & Wound Care Physician

DeLand Foot and Leg Center

Sources:

Aligning Programs and Policies to Support Food Security and Public Health Goals in the United States. Seligman HK, Berkowitz SA.

Annu Rev Public Health. 2019 Apr 1;40:319-337. doi: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-044132. Epub 2018 Nov 16.

PubMed [citation]

PMID: 30444684

PMCID: PMC6784838

 

Food stamps, food insecurity, and health outcomes among elderly Americans.

Pak TY, Kim G.

Prev Med. 2020 Jan;130:105871. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.105871. Epub 2019 Oct 31.

PMID:31678175

 

Predictors of Diet-Related Health Outcomes in Food-Secure and Food-Insecure Communities.

Kaiser ML, Dionne J, Carr JK.

Soc Work Public Health. 2019;34(3):214-229. doi: 10.1080/19371918.2019.1575313. Epub 2019 Feb 15.

PubMed [citation]

PMID:30767652

 

Ziliak JP, Gundersen C. The State of Senior Hunger in America 2015: An Annual Report – Supplement 2017.

Rand Report 2017: https://www.rand.org/topics/health-health-care-and-aging.html

Atypical depressive symptoms and obesity in a national sample of older adults with major depressive disorder. Chou KL, Yu KM Depress Anxiety. 2013 Jun; 30(6):574-9.

2020: A STRONG YEAR IN THE FIGHT TO #ENDHUNGER

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The Florida Legislature season begins Tuesday, January 14th. For most, that won’t mean much, but for Florida Impact to End Hunger, it is a BIG day. We are supporting legislation that would provide access to nutritious meals for low-income children participating in parks and recreation programs. This sounds like a simple change but advocating for legislative change is anything but simple.

With almost 3,000 bills already filed in the House, legislators must compete to even get a bill placed on a committee calendar. After a bill is drafted, it must travel through several committees before it reaches the House floor. The same thing has to happen in the Senate with a companion bill before they are brought up for a vote by the full House and Senate. With all the bills and all the legislators trying to get heard in just 60 days, one little bill—even one that would help hungry kids—can easily get lost in the shuffle.

We are happy to have strong sponsors: House Representative Duran is behind HB 83 and Senator Book is behind SB 668. Both of them are working hard to move forward. Senator Book was able to get a vote before session even started on SB 668 from its first committee! Now that the bill is moving in the Senate, Representative Duran is optimistic that his bill will be placed on a calendar. Oh my! All this and we haven’t even started session.

Last year Senator Book filed the bill, but it didn’t move out of committee early enough, despite the fact that Florida Impact to End Hunger staff and board advocated strongly in favor of the bill’s passage. But this is the year!

You can help, too. Please take a moment (I promise, only a moment) to sign on in support of the Government Sponsored Parks and Recreation Bill here: https://forms.gle/XBEQ8HDwSJ86twVB6

Let’s make this a strong year in the fight to #EndHunger.

Trudy Novicki

President/CEO

Florida Impact to End Hunger

#HB83 #SB668

HELLO, 2020: OUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

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2020? Are you serious? This month marks the start of my third year with Florida Impact to End Hunger, and I feel like I’m just getting started. Although my oldest son turns 10 this year and I just celebrated my 12th wedding anniversary, I can’t help but feel like time is just flying by!

As I ponder Florida Impact to End Hunger in 2020 and my role as Chief Operating Officer, I’ve come up with a few “New Year’s Resolutions:”

1. Start at least one new project in North Florida. Approximately 95% of the local work we do as an organization happens in South Florida. Our two regional directors are based there, a number of board members live there, and a good portion of our grantors and funders are located there. However, with our Administrative Coordinator, Kelli, and me up here in Tallahassee, we have started to seek out new funding to support efforts in the Big Bend – where hunger is no stranger to residents. So far, we have submitted two grant applications (and have two more pending) for school-based projects in Leon County. We are eager to get started on this work!

2. Improve online fundraising. With an increased focus on social media and a new communications plan, 2019 saw a spike in online fundraising. Still there is more to be done. Our fearless communications team is on the hunt for new opportunities and strategies to engage donors in both campaign contributions as well as reoccurring giving. Of course, Florida Impact to End Hunger will continue to increase our reach on all social media platforms.

3. Continue to present on state and national webinars and at conferences. Collectively in 2019, the Florida Impact to End Hunger staff has presented on 3 national webinars, at 2 national conferences, at 3 state conferences, and on 10 state or local webinars and/or conference calls in 2019. This kind of platform gets our name out to other organizations and solidifies us as “experts” in the field of anti-hunger advocacy. As we continue to expand our reach and create new and innovative projects, I look forward to more presentation invitations on both the state and national levels.

4. Expand the Healthy Retail Project into two new low-income communities. As one of Florida Impact to End Hunger’s newest projects, the Healthy Retail Project in Miami Gardens continues to gain momentum. With continued national attention on increasing healthy food options in low-income areas, we are confident we will get the support needed to expand this project into at least two new communities. Maybe even in North Florida!

5. Set aside 5 to 10 minutes for a walk, stretch, or workout (OK, this one’s for me). Don’t get me wrong – working from a home office has a number of benefits. However, I tend to miss the days of taking walks with my coworkers and being limited to the food I brought with me to eat each day. Nowadays I tend to do a lot more sitting, and my fridge and pantry are just in the next room! So this year I’m setting a resolution for myself to go outside, do some pushups, take a walk around the yard, just to do SOMETHING other than sit at my desk each day. We have heard plenty about the health risks of a sedentary lifestyle, but I’ve also started to realize that a walk or quick stretch can help me refocus and get back on track.

I look forward to the limitless potential of the year 2020. We’ll keep you posted on our progress! Please drop us line to share a few of yours or your organization’s own New Year’s Resolutions!

Katie Williams

Chief Operating Officer

Florida Impact to End Hunger