Research has long shown that a huge part of managing Type 2 Diabetes is developing and maintaining a healthy diet. For seniors living in rural areas, this can be one of the most difficult parts of learning to live with the disease. Access to healthy food and nutrition education is often hard to come by for those in their golden years living in remote areas, but Inter-Faith Food Shuttle is stepping up to change all that. This month marked the well-received beginning of FAERS--the Food Access and Education for Rural Seniors—Program, facilitated by the Food Shuttle’s Senior Nutrition Programs, in Chatham and Johnston counties. In order to reduce perpetual disparities caused by systemic racism, the program focuses support to African-American and Hispanic seniors over the age of 60 living with Type 2 Diabetes and translates all materials for Spanish-speaking participants. Currently, FAERS supports dozens of participants and is working to recruit even more.
Thanks to a $100,000 grant from Feeding America network donors, including Enterprise Rent-A-Car Foundation, the initiative is working to improve the health of seniors in rural areas at no cost to them. It takes a comprehensive approach, sending recipes and shopping lists geared towards managing their health conditions in addition to a monthly $30 Food Lion gift card. Fresh food is also distributed every two weeks, and over-the-phone nutrition education classes are held in both English and Spanish each month.
Another important aspect of FAERS is expanding the reach of senior hunger programs to rural areas, which are often overlooked despite their additional hurdles in accessing healthy food. Piniel Tadesse, Community Health Education Programs Manager, says “Long-term, we want our programs to be sustainable, even past the pilot program which is scheduled for nine months right now. We want to be able to continue the program in Chatham and Johnston counties and expand into the other rural areas we serve, as well.”
The FAERS team has found creative ways to operate with the coupled challenges of the pandemic and rural considerations. For example, nutrition education classes cannot be held as usual in-person, and seniors often don’t have access to computers or internet to use Zoom. Teleconferencing, where seniors can call a phone number and listen in on classes, has proven to be an effective method of communication. Thus far, participants have already expressed outpourings of gratitude for the convenience and support of the program. As a part of its year-long funding partnership, Aetna Medicare Advantage is also joining the FAERS team to assist in the recruitment of participants in Johnston county, providing nutrition education, and engaging an Aetna dietician in an upcoming monthly call.
Linda Bailey, a participant in the program, spoke about her experience so far. “I was amazed at all the food in the bags, all of it were things I wanted to eat, and they gave recipes to actually use most of those products. On the back page of the recipes, they had a word search and a crossword puzzle, and I never do those. After reading the booklet and finding out the different nutritional things I should be looking for in my health by being a Type 2 Diabetic, then I even filled out the crossword puzzle, did the word search, and I got it all 100% correct,” she said with a laugh.