Lengthy earlier than my time as Secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Providers, I’ve labored to make sure older Individuals – and all Individuals – have entry to secure, nutritious meals.
As a member of the U.S. Home of Representatives for greater than 20 years, I labored tirelessly to assist funding for packages that stop starvation and meals insecurity in our communities.
And as Lawyer Basic of the State of California, I fought to guard the Supplemental Diet Help Program (SNAP), defending entry to meals for individuals who want it most.
This work is vital to advancing well being fairness. The proof is obvious: Good diet helps reduce down on continual illness, which disproportionately hurts our most susceptible communities. That’s why we’ve partnered with businesses just like the Meals and Drug Administration to cut back the extent of sodium in meals throughout the nation and mitigate continual illness that’s typically tied to salty meals.
I’m proud to proceed this work as HHS Secretary. And immediately, I’m delighted to have fun the fiftieth anniversary of the Older Individuals Act (OAA) Diet Program.
The Older Individuals Act Diet Program was signed into legislation on March 22, 1972, creating the primary federal program to assist the well being and well-being of older adults by diet companies. A long time later, the OAA Senior Diet Program – administered by the Administration for Neighborhood Dwelling (ACL) – continues to fund native businesses and organizations that assist older adults entry wholesome meals and different sources in order that they’ll stay unbiased, properly, and related of their properties and communities.
Every day, about 5,000 diet program suppliers serve an estimated 1 million meals to older Individuals throughout the nation. The packages deal with underserved communities and others in best want — individuals with low earnings, these in rural areas, and members of minority communities, together with these with limited-English proficiency. These meals make a distinction – over half of individuals inform us that the meal they obtain by this system provides 50% or extra of their complete meals for the day, and greater than 70% report that they eat more healthy meals due to this system.
However the OAA Senior Diet Program is about greater than entry to wholesome meals – it additionally supplies diet screening, training, and counseling, in addition to a significant hyperlink to well being sources, social connections, and an array of residence and community-based companies that assist older adults’ general well-being. The house-delivered meal program additionally supplies older adults with a chance for social interplay with a pleasant face that they could not in any other case see. And congregate meals – the place older adults can collect to eat with others of their neighborhood – present invaluable alternatives for significant connections that preserve the well being of individuals.
Regardless of the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic over the previous two years, the OAA Senior Diet Program has continued to offer these important companies. Native packages pivoted to make use of versatile, artistic approaches to proceed serving their communities, from curbside meal occasions and partnerships with eating places to safe-distanced doorstep meals drops and digital diet training.
As we commemorate this milestone anniversary of the OAA Senior Diet Program, I wish to commend the organizations and people who run native senior diet packages throughout the nation day-after-day – and the perseverance of the older Individuals they serve. Now as Secretary of HHS, I’ll hold working as I’ve performed all through my profession to make sure all Individuals have entry to secure, nutritious meals and the companies wanted to assist general well-being. Collectively, we are going to construct on 50 years of progress and shut the fairness gaps that plague our well being care system. And we are going to proceed innovating to make sure that, because the older American inhabitants grows, we are able to present the assist they should age independently of their communities, with dignity, and in good well being.