The Health Options for the Elderly (HOPE) program combats senior hunger in Central Texas. The program provides food to older adults at risk of hunger through 24 Partner Agencies. Once a month, the HOPE program distributes a 20 pound bag of food to clients on regularly scheduled days. Each bag includes food that is carefully selected to meet the nutritional needs of older adults, including canned fruits, vegetables, and meat, as well as cereal, pasta, beans, shelf-stable milk, peanut butter, and other items. This year, the HOPE program is on track to serve an average of 3,943 older adults each month at 24 sites
Last year, the HOPE program served a monthly average of 3,943 older adults across 24 Central Texas sites. The program distributed a total of 730,138 pounds of food, or the equivalent of 608,448 meals.
Pearl, 90 years old, visits a Food Bank partner agency each month for her HOPE food package. She explains that after she turned 90, she decided it was time to stop driving. She sold her car and now relies on her family for help with transportation to important appointments like these. At 90 years old, Pearl has been living off a fixed income for quite a while.
“Social Security, and that’s all I get!” she says of her retirement budget. “I can take care of most things with that income, but the biggest thing is I’m on Medicare not Medicaid, so I pay quite a bit for supplemental insurance.” She then pulls out her checkbook to point out that her supplemental insurance costs her more than $250 each month.
Thankfully, Pearl can count on HOPE distributions from the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas to fulfill some of her nutritional needs and free up her budget for other essentials. If help like this didn’t exist, she says she’d have to rely on her kids to help provide groceries. “I’ve never lived any place that has something like this. Nobody in Georgetown should go hungry and I think it’s wonderful!”
