With generous support from The Washington Home, the conference brought together key organizations to discuss strategies for addressing hunger among DC seniors
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Washington, D.C., May 17, 2024 – The Capital Area Food Bank on Thursday hosted the first-ever Senior Hunger Conference, which brought together nearly 100 leaders of key organizations involved in addressing food insecurity among D.C. seniors to collaborate on how to ensure better access to nutritious food for our older neighbors.
The gathering, hosted on the campus of Gallaudet University with generous support from The Washington Home, was aimed at better understanding the current landscape of organizations that are serving seniors, discover gaps in services, and strategize on how to address those gaps to reach as many food-insecure seniors as possible.
“Our older neighbors have given so much to our community, yet far too many seniors in our region are struggling to access enough nutritious food,” said Radha Muthiah, president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank. “Addressing food insecurity among seniors must be a priority, and this convening laid an important foundation for working more collaboratively to support some of DC’s most vulnerable residents.”
DC seniors experience one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the nation. Nearly one in three DC residents aged 60 or older are food insecure, according to data that the food bank gathered with the research firm NORC at the University of Chicago. In the Greater Washington region overall, 20% of seniors are food insecure – or nearly 187,000 people.
Seniors often have limited income, making it difficult to afford food and other expenses like rent and medicine. They may not have access to transportation to grocery stores where they can access nutritious food, and they are more likely to have chronic health conditions that make cooking and grocery shopping difficult.
The conference included an overview of the food bank’s Senior Hunger Heat Map, a tool for analyzing how areas of need among seniors overlap with areas where meals are available. The day-long event also included testimonials from seniors on their experiences with food insecurity; discussions on how to improve data collaboration to better identify service gaps; and working groups to share ideas on ways to effectively and efficiently improve food access for seniors.
About the Capital Area Food Bank:
The Capital Area Food Bank works to address hunger today and create brighter futures tomorrow for more than a million people across the region experiencing food insecurity. As the anchor in the area’s hunger relief infrastructure, the food bank provided nearly 61 million meals to people in need last year by supplying food to hundreds of nonprofit organizations, including Martha’s Table, SOME – So Others Might Eat, DC Central Kitchen, Food for Others, Manna, and others. It also works in partnership with organizations across the region to address hunger’s root causes by pairing food with critical services such as education, health care, and job training. To learn more, visit https://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/ or call (202.644.9864).