NEWS

TIME: As America Ages, Fewer Older Adults Provided Home-Delivered and Group Meals

Aug 28, 2019

TIME Magazine published an article examining a national trend of an aging population contrasted with support for home-delivered and group meals that lag behind the demographic shift and inflation.

The article notes that “the biggest chunk of [Older Americans Act] budget, nutrition services, dropped by 8% over the past 18 years when adjusted for inflation, an AARP report found in February. Home-delivered and group meals have decreased by nearly 21 million since 2005. Only a fraction of those facing food insecurity get any meal services under the act; a U.S. Government Accountability Office report examining 2013 data found 83% got none.”

TIME references a 2017 report that revealed nearly 8% of all Americans 60 and older were “food insecure” in 2017, meaning they lacked consistent access to enough food. A map of selected metropolitan areas highlights the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy metro area (even though the dot on the map is placed in central New Hampshire) has a 7.4% food insecurity rate. The Providence-Fall River-Warwick area is slightly higher, but still short of the national average at 7.7%.

Resources for older adults in Massachusetts via the Nutrition Program for Seniors are available here on the Executive Office of Elder Affairs website.