Food insecure senior adults across the Texas Panhandle now have access to a new resource to find food pantry, mobile, home-delivered, and congregate meal options close to home. The Mary E. Bivins Foundation launched SeniorHungerSolutions.org the first of April, which coincides with Senior Hunger Awareness Month.
The website not only provides food resources across the region, but also breaks down the number of food insecure older adults by county, providing data that highlights a growing problem within our community.
“Our research found that there are several thousand food insecure older adults living in the Texas Panhandle,” explains Mary E. Bivins Program Officer Jessica Tudyk. “Randall County, for example, has at least 2,593 seniors who lack consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.”
The Senior Hunger Solutions project first started several years ago when representatives from the Amarillo Area Foundation, Harrington Cancer and Health Foundation, High Plains Christian Ministries Foundation, and the Mary E. Bivins Foundation gathered to discuss the concern.
“We knew this was a critical issue that needed to be addressed further, so the Mary E. Bivins Foundation committed resources to enable an in-depth study of hunger and food insecurity among older adults living in the Texas Panhandle,” says Mary E. Bivins President and Chief Executive Officer Katharyn Wiegand.
The Senior Hunger Study identified the scope of hunger and food insecurity among seniors in the top 26 counties of the Texas Panhandle, produced a list of resources, and served as a catalyst for discussion and collaboration among organizations already serving the growing food insecure senior population.
“Addressing hunger and food insecurity among older adults is an important part of the Mary E. Bivins Foundation’s mission, so we immediately started working on a way to help senior adults find the resources they need to become food secure,” says Tudyk. “SeniorHungerSolutions.com features dedicated pages for all 26 Panhandle Counties, providing a detailed list of food resources specific to each county.”
“Our hope is to provide senior adults an easy tool to find programs close to home,” says Wiegand. “It is a meaningful step toward solving a problem that affects several thousand of our elderly neighbors.”
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