Senior SNAP-Ed: Policy, systems and environmental changes to improve nutrition

USDA SNAP-Ed (aka NEOP) funding for older adults was routed through a state department on aging to local area agencies on aging for the first time, beginning in July 2014. We will describe the initial year of our innovative project that includes support for nutrition sites to improve their menu standards and a community engagement program with seniors to identify and overcome barriers to healthy food and physical activity. 

We conducted educational sessions on policy, systems and environmental (PSE) impacts on health with diverse seniors at three low-income congregate meal sites, reaching Hispanic, Guamanian, Filipino, and white seniors. They identified barriers to healthy food and physical activity, such as dangerous intersections. They have identified PSE changes in the community to overcome such barriers, e.g., convincing the traffic department to install safer cross-walks. By October 2015, we will have completed the program and will report on which PSE barriers and solutions the seniors chose to address, plus any successes towards making those PSE changes.

In a related intervention, we conducted a print campaign with pictures of Harvest of the Month (HOTM) vegetable/fruit and recipes on the dining tables at each of 13 low-income congregate meal sites. We hope to build awareness of the importance of eating fresh produce and build support for including HOTM items on the menu. We trained the nutrition site managers in how to implement HOTM focusing on locally sourced produce. We will share the results of our program, including how many of the 13 sites have adopted HOTM policies.