Food Security

A new Poll Extra from the National Poll on Healthy Aging takes a look at the impact of rising food costs on older adults, their overall diet, and food security. In all, three-quarters of people age 50–80 in the United States say the rising cost of groceries has affected them somewhat or a lot, and nearly a third of older adults say they are eating less healthily as a result.

The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health has released a toolkit allowing partners to provide input into the development and implementation of a national strategy on hunger, nutrition, and health that will be announced in September 2022. The toolkit is designed to faciliate conversations with members about ending hunger, improving nutrition, and increasing physical activity.

The 2017 evaluation of the Older Americans Act (OAA) Nutrition Program for the Elderly provides results and information on the impact of the program on the participants’ food security, socialization, and diet quality. Comparisons are drawn from the previous evaluation of the program conducted in 1995. This evaluation also serves to provide insight into areas needing further review.

This fact sheet from Mathematica Policy Research summarizes findings from the Nutrition Services Program (NSP) outcomes evaluation. The fact sheet describes participants’ characteristics and their impressions of the program, and the program’s impact on food security, socialization, and and diet quality.

This report from the National Disability Institute (NDI) studies the prevalence of disability by race, the changing rate of disability by age and race, and the impact of race and disability on educational attainment, employment, banking status, health insurance, medical debt, and food insecurity.

This resource guide seeks to address some of the challenges of incorporating food security screening and referrals in primary care settings serving older adult patients.Intended for use by health care systems, clinics, and accountable care organizations, the guide synthesizes findings from case studies conducted with health systems that have incorporated food security screening and referral and an environmental scan identifying implementation strategies and methods for screening and referral.