Tom Rabatin and Catherine Crandall were happily discussing food preparation ideas in their north Minneapolis home.
But this was no cooking show.
“Catherine always tells me to eat more vegetables and fruits,” says Rabatin. “I look forward to the extra vitamins and minerals.”
The 79-year-old retired restaurateur and Crandall, his HealthPartners Care Coordinator, shared their stories about healthy eating — but they also wanted to show off what HealthPartners calls a “farmbox,” packed with 20 pounds of fruit and fresh vegetables.
“I think it’s a trade-off for healthier foods for people,” Crandall explains. “It can reduce the risk of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, all the things we’re trying to avoid.”
(KSTP)
Since January, HealthPartners has delivered nearly 18,000 boxes to more than 1,800 recipients. Read also : 6-24-22 Second Annual “Fill the Food Cruiser” July 1 in Kona.
It is part of an effort to give the elderly, including those with fixed income – access to healthy food.
The health care provider is partnering with FarmboxRx, a national food supplier, to give the boxes to Medicare recipients for free.
“They always bring you, diets and exercise and so it’s something I like to do, even though I’m an old man,” he says. “Probably this is something I should have done a long time ago.”
Rabatin, whose family has a history of heart disease, is not alone.
The latest numbers from Feeding America, a national hunger project, show that one in fifteen seniors nationwide is food insecure – with limited access to enough food to live a healthy lifestyle.
“So we’re seeing a lot of seniors visiting food shelves in Minnesota, often for the first time,” says Taylor Day, the Senior Program Manager with Second Harvest Heartland. “Seniors are the fastest growing population using food shelves.”
Day says his organization serves about 6,500 seniors a month through a USDA effort called the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, or CSFP for short.
“Especially during the COVID pandemic, we have seen that the elderly need to access these food resources and come to us, as well as many community partners for that,” he notes.
The Department of Human Services says that senior visits to food shelves have increased by 31% since pre-pandemic 2019 – that nearly 4% of Minnesota’s seniors – about 36,000 people – are dealing with food insecurity issues .
“With the cost of gas going up, with the cost of housing going up, with the cost of medicine going up, our seniors are going to have to make really tough decisions about what they’re going to spend their fixed incomes on.” , says Day. “And a lot of times, in this equation, food loses.”
She also notes that some seniors have real fears of COVID, and are afraid to buy food in person.
She says it’s very isolating, especially for those who live alone.
Both HealthPartners and Second Harvest Heartland are trying to get the word out – that seniors have options.
Second Harvest, for example, uses DoorDash.
The HealthPartners Farmbox program also provides.
“Maybe they don’t have access to nutritious food, so the box comes to their house,” says Crandall. “They can sign up to get it once a month or twice a month.”
Now she’s a healthy food ambassador of sorts — sharing her Farmbox deliveries with other seniors in her building.
“Knowing that I can only eat so much and still carry, I think twenty kilos of fruit and vegetables a month, which I know will be left,” he says. “Everyone is aware of that system, and then we all share the same leftover food that is in the lobby.”
You can learn more about the FarmboxRx program here.
More information about Second Harvest Heartland is available here.
