Older-adult food insecurity on rise in Ohio

Older adults now make up nearly one in four of all food-pantry visitors across Ohio, and hunger-fighting groups say the number could spike with the end of emergency SNAP allotments.

Hope Lane-Gavin, director of nutrition policy and programs for the Ohio Association of Food Banks, explained Ohioans lost an average of around $86 per person, per month, toward their groceries. She said many older adults living alone on fixed incomes are now relying on just $23 a month to purchase nutritious foods.

“Their circumstances rarely change,” Lane-Gavin noted. “They also have less access to a lot of the other programming that, let’s say, families with children have.”

She contended the state could help address the issue by filling the gap to ensure Ohio’s more than 70,000 older adults relying on SNAP benefits receive at least $50 a month.

Research shows SNAP participations helps low-income older adults live independently in their communities longer, and avoid costly hospital visits.

Lane-Gavin pointed out older adults are at higher risk of malnutrition and diet-related diseases, and added when they are able to purchase foods themselves, they can make the best dietary choices for their own health or medical conditions.

“Food banks can’t tailor boxes based off of, ‘This person has high cholesterol, this person has diabetes,'” Lane-Gavin stressed. “They don’t have the resources to do that.”

One study from the National Council on Aging found during the pandemic, older adults receiving increased SNAP benefits were less likely to skip meals, and better able to meet other basic needs, such as paying for medication, rent and utilities.