Kent County Times

Washington, D.C. – Today, Representative Seth Magaziner (RI-02) announced that he has co-sponsored the Senior Hunger Prevention Act, a bill to expand seniors’ access to nutritious food and lower costs for seniors’ essential needs. The legislation, introduced by Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (OR-1) and Andrea Salinas (OR-6), aims to address challenges faced by older adults, grandparents, kinship caregivers, and adults with disabilities who struggle to navigate federal nutrition assistance programs. 

The Senior Hunger Prevention Act will:

1.    Increase the minimum monthly SNAP benefit for all participants by improving the medical expense deduction;

2.    Simplify application and certification processes for eligible individuals in nutrition programs, including SNAP, and extend how long they can be enrolled in programs;

3.    Support outreach efforts to enroll more older adults, grandparent and kinship caregivers, and adults with disabilities in nutrition programs;

4.    Enable adults with disabilities to participate in additional programs that provide shelf-stable, supplemental food and fresh, locally sourced food;

5.    Update the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, a program to provide seniors with healthy foods in monthly food boxes, and the Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program;

6.    Provide grants to nonprofits, local aging and disability service providers, and related organizations to bring fresh, local food to accessible locations; and,

7.    Expand SNAP food delivery options through public-private partnerships and strengthen retail delivery options for older adults and adults with disabilities.

“All Rhode Islanders deserve access to healthy, affordable food, and seniors are no exception,” said Rep. Seth Magaziner. “I’m proud to co-sponsor this legislation to reduce barriers and expand access to federal nutrition programs so that no Rhode Island seniors are forced to go to bed hungry at night.”

According to Feeding America, more than 5 million seniors were food insecure in 2021. Approximately three out of five older adults who are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) do not access it, and only 16 percent of the seniors who do receive SNAP use the medical expense deduction to increase the value of their monthly benefit.

Original source can be found here.