Food Plus-Living Well: A food bank nutrition program for low-income seniors

By the year 2030, roughly one out of every five Americans will be aged 65 and older. This population is at increased risk for undernourishment and malnutrition, conditions that often lead to a myriad of serious adverse health outcomes. In 2010, 3.4 million (7.9% of households) older Americans were food insecure. Food banks have played an important public health role in addressing this food insecurity. The purpose of this project, Food Plus-Living Well, is to create a food-bank based nutrition education program that addresses the unique nutritional needs of low-income, elderly adults. This pilot project was comprised of 6, 1-hour interactive nutrition education sessions, over the course of 16 weeks. The Food Plus-Living Well program used nutrition education material provided by the Elder Nutrition and Food Safety program at the University of Florida. Every Food Plus-Living Well discussion session featured different health topics, interactive discussions, healthy recipes, and nutrition handouts and reminders provided by the Arizona Nutrition Network. Benchmarks for success of the program were (1) attendance of >5 participants per session and (2) participants' responses to post-intervention surveys at the end of each session. Results indicated the effectiveness of this program in meeting some of the needs of low-income elderly participants. Recommendations for program improvement and expansion were developed. This pilot program adds to the limited knowledge about the effectiveness and efficiency of food-bank based educational programs.