Carlee Holliday, 76, a retired nurse and Lincoln Square resident, participated in the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) for the first time last summer. SFMNP, a federally funded initiative, provides eligible older adults a set of coupons redeemable at participating farmers markets for fresh, locally grown fruits, vegetables, herbs and honey.
“The coupons make a difference in the kinds of foods you can afford to buy,” she said. “When they give us these coupons, we can get all the different varieties of foods at the farmers markets that keep us healthy and happy.”
In Illinois, the program is administered by the Illinois Department of Human Services and the Illinois Department on Aging, with implementation in Chicago through a partnership with the Greater Chicago Food Depository. This year, we distributed 14,000 coupon booklets to older adults across Chicago, providing more than $490,000 worth of fresh, local produce. We also coordinated many pop-up markets at senior residential sites, giving recipients immediate access to fresh produce.
The SFMNP is one of many ways the Food Depository supports our older adult neighbors. One in six adults aged 50 and older in Cook County faces food insecurity, a rate significantly higher than the national average. Contributing factors include fixed incomes, rising living costs and limited access to social services. Approximately 75% of Chicago seniors live on fixed incomes, making it difficult to afford fresh, nutritious food as living costs rise.
“We are very thankful to the Greater Chicago Food Depository for providing food for us and doing things like the senior coupons,” Holliday added. “As seniors, we are a vulnerable population, so it’s really wonderful that somebody cares about us, and we appreciate it.”
Additionally, each month the Food Depository provides Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) boxes to eligible residents as part of a U.S. Department of Agriculture program for low-income older adults. These boxes contain shelf-stable foods, including pasta or rice, canned vegetables and fruit, peanut butter, oatmeal or other cereal, dry milk and canned meat. These items help older adults struggling to support themselves on fixed incomes.
Marvin Ware, 61, is one of over 6,000 older adults who received CSFP boxes this year. Ware is a resident of Hope Manor II, a subsidized housing development for veterans in Englewood and one of the Food Depository’s many partner locations.
“This makes me feel like we are cared about,” Ware said of the food boxes. “It makes the heart stronger.” This fiscal year, the Food Depository distributed over 2 million pounds of food through the CSFP program, which is the equivalent of 1.67 million meals.
The most widespread way we address hunger among older adults is through our network of more than 800 partner food pantries, soup kitchens and other programs, where we serve nearly 200,000 households a month. In FY24, the Food Depository opened several new pantries, including the Seeds Center Food Pantry in West Pullman.
When Gwendolyn Traylor, 87, heard about the new pantry, she was excited about the impact it would have on the community.
“I’m a senior and I’ve been retired for 25 years,” she said. “Any bit of help makes my life easier.”
The Seeds Center started as a soup kitchen, the Park Café, and has since built a community, primarily of older adults, who come for food each week and stay for the company. Traylor has visited pantries ever since her retirement, but she is especially grateful to have one close to her home in a place she knows well, where she can also access other services.
“The beautiful thing about the Seeds Center is that anyone can come here,” she said. “There’s so much love.”
