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Michigan
low-income seniors shut out of produce program
Bubblegum
plums, Concord grapes and sweet corn are among the fresh fare awaiting
shoppers at local farmers' markets these days. But
Michigan's low-income seniors are shut out of a successful federal program
to help the poor buy fresh produce. Pilot-tested
in Michigan as Senior Project Fresh in 2001, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program provides $20 in
vouchers each year for low-income seniors to buy fresh, locally grown
fruits and vegetables. The
vouchers are redeemable at authorized farmers' markets and roadside
stands. In
2001, 6,000 participants were awarded $120,000 in food vouchers. But
with the exception of people in one American Indian tribal community on
the Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan residents have been unable to participate
since the trial run. That's
because the federal grant covers only food, not administrative expenses,
said Gayle Coleman, program leader of Expanded Food and Nutrition
Education at Michigan State University Extension in East Lansing. The
program cost about $12,000 to run in 2001. People
liked the program, said Gayle Reed, executive director of the Heart of
Senior Citizens Services Krapohl Senior Center in Mount Morris. While
$20 may not sound like a lot of money, it is for seniors struggling to
make ends meet, Reed said. "I'm
still getting people calling two years later to see if the program is
back," she said. "It also helped our Michigan farmers." Senior
Project Fresh is modeled after a Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program
that offers low-income mothers and children $20 a year in vouchers to buy
fresh produce. The
WIC Farmers' Market Nutrition Program called Project Fresh, for which
Michigan receives federal funding, also seeks to give farmers' markets a
boost. Thirty-five
states receive funding for the senior program. Ohio
harvested more than $1.3 million in federal money for its disadvantaged
senior citizens this year. Michigan
didn't apply for it in 2002 or 2003. After
the pilot program concluded, the Engler administration viewed the program
as too expensive to continue, said Jane Church, a program specialist at
the State Office of Services to the Aging. The
WIC program has avoided a similar fate. In fact, Project Fresh grants to
Michigan exceeded $500,000 for the past three years, second only to
Wisconsin in the Midwest. Especially
in a tight economy, operators and vendors at farmers' markets say they
would welcome a program that attracts new business. Advocates
of the program hope the state will resume it next year. But
that will require help from local communities, said Meagan Shedd of Family
and Consumer Science at MSU Extension, which helped the state win the
initial 2001 grant. The
U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to seek proposals in November
and grant awards in March. "It
would be really wonderful if we could bring it back," said
extension's Coleman, "because it was really well received by the
farmers, and the seniors really liked it."
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
