CHI St. Vincent’s Help in the Fight Against Hunger Among Seniors

CHI St. Vincent’s Mission and Outreach department has continued their work with community leaders to fight hunger in low income senior housing units in Hot Springs. According to the Hot Springs Area Community Foundation, transportation is the top barrier to obtaining healthy foods for seniors in the region.

The residents are highly dependent upon local pantries to meet their needs and some internal food resources secured mostly by management. Nearly half of the residents surveyed said that their struggles with obtaining healthy food has affected their mental health negatively. 

“I met Charlie, he sings karaoke at the Copper Penny every Wednesday night. He’s a guitar player too, and shared his playlist for the weekend with us. It included Johnny Cash, Elvis, and the likes of others. It’s in these moments of fellowship that trust is built and that’s important because there’s a lot of shame in hunger. We hope to ease minds and normalize meeting the needs of those in need as a team and ultimately as a community,” said Mandy Davis, Community Outreach Director.

Mandy said that her hope is to continue to bring resources to low income seniors, and begin a community conversation around what they’ve learned. She said they want to explore the idea of mobile pantries, delivery services and community refrigerators.

“This collaboration of area nonprofits working together allows the community foundation to work towards reducing food insecurity and increasing the number in our community who have consistent, secure access to healthy food.  We haven’t entirely solved the issues, but by knocking on their doors, obtaining their answers to our survey, and meeting them in their own environment, we get a much better picture of the real issues they are facing.  Working together we can only hope that they will see and make improvements in their own daily lives,” said Joyce Whitfield, Hot Springs Area Community Foundation Executive Director.