JACKSONVILLE, Fla. —
Food insecurity has been a persistent challenge in Jacksonville for years, but with the launch of a new initiative and the support of additional programs, it is now on the decline.
Chief Health Officer, Dr. Sunil Joshi, joined Dr. Michael Koren on Medevidence to talk about the initiative and how it will help the elderly population.
“Our program is set up through an RFP to be able to provide healthy, what we call the Older Americans Act Based Nutritious Food. So, these have to be nutritious foods that are also specific to individuals.”
This program caters to individuals with specific dietary needs including vegan, vegetarian and diabetic options.
Dr. Joshi mentions that in 2015, twenty percent of Jacksonville’s population was considered to be food insecure.
“Through a lot of different programs including Feeding Northeast Florida, the JTA ride to share program, Urban Farms that we have here in Jacksonville, we have reduced our food insecurity down to ten percent, a significant decrease just in the last ten years.”
Dr. Joshi states that while things have worked in Jacksonville, they haven’t been as successful for the elderly. Older adults face different issues, like financial struggles and disabilities.
“Our Elder Source community here in Jacksonville which is a non for profit came to our office and let us know that there were almost 3,000 people on a waiting list, elderly folks for food. They also had already served 800 people a day, five days a week, elderly people over the age of 65 who were food insecure. 800 of them are being served everyday but we had 2800 people on the waiting list.”
Dr. Joshi says their group worked with Elder Source to find a vendor who could quickly make food and help get hot meals to more elderly people every day.
“This program which also started in July of 2024, through two quarters so far has been able to reduce that waiting list by 63 percent.”
The program is funded by city funds, providing the individual with a nutritious hot meal and a home visit for additional support.
“There’s so much benefit to this program and we are not even two quarters into it, we do expect to reduce that waiting list so low that more people are going to want to jump on and get these food services.”
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