Victoria Bender of Marathon County has become better acquainted with the challenges of food access by volunteering with Faith in Action. She helps clients work through their finances in order to receive benefits through FoodShare Wisconsin, a state program that helps low-income Wisconsinites purchase food. Bender says most rely primarily on social security and savings, and as costs have gone up, those sources of funding do not stretch quite as far.
But new options have recently emerged. The FoodShare program is now helping Faith in Action’s clients make ends meet. To qualify for FoodShare, a one-person household must have a total monthly income of less than $1,862. Benefits can be used to purchase breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy products–a variety that is difficult to manage without assistance. Motley says 39 clients applied for FoodShare between July and mid-October, a move that allowed them to purchase fresh produce at the local farmers’ market during the warmer months.
The program has helped relieve some of the anxiety seniors face when they have to choose between medical care and healthy food, Bender says. The results are visible, too. The clients she works with are eating better diets and gaining less weight because of the mix of vegetables, fruit and protein, she says.
But there is still work to do, and part of that requires bringing elderly people with limited food access into the spotlight.
“We spend a lot of time focusing on kids. We need to look at our seniors too, because they built our country, they made it what it is for us,” Motley says.
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