Food insecurity
With rising prices and the stress of stretching a fixed income, seventy-seven-year-old Luong Nguyen and his wife struggle to stay afloat. Their story reflect a growing crisis among Vietnamese seniors in Orange County who rely on food distribution centers as a lifeline to access nutritious food as a daily and medical necessity.
When SNAP benefits were paused on Nov. 1, millions of people were left without cash assistance to buy food. To fill the gap, restaurants like Al Pastor Papi began offering free meals to CalFresh (SNAP) recipients, food banks expanded deliveries and the city launched a philanthropy-backed partnership to distribute one-time prepaid grocery cards, but advocates warn that these pauses are only a preview of looming, long-term federal cuts that could push more than half a million Californians into food insecurity, with no quick rebound in sight.
For many CalFresh recipients across Orange County with large concentrations in immigrant neighborhoods like Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Westminster, November arrived with empty EBT balances, stalled benefits, and no clear answers.
For far too many Asian families, finding enough food is a daily struggle. As prices climb and government aid wavers, more Chinese immigrant families in Los Angeles County are turning to food distributions for help. Language barriers and fears about their immigration status make this daily struggle even harder.
Food insecurity affects farmworkers at higher rates than the general U.S. population, and it can increase their risk of suffering from several chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and obesity, particularly among women. Farmworkers often have to choose between healthy food and medication.
After being displaced by a fire, elderly Asian residents feel depressed and isolated as they struggle to access basic necessities in their temporary accommodation far from familiar surroundings. Alerted to their situation by a Red Cross first responder, local community organizations intervene to bridge gaps in direct services, creating a model for rapid response in the event of an emergency that jeopardizes the well-being of underserved Asian seniors in the Bay Area.
As they cultivate gardens, seniors in Sacramento find a renewed sense of purpose. Sharon Chandler is one such senior who introduces the love of gardening to residents of the Delta Cove senior apartment complex in South Sacramento. The initiative fosters social interaction, encourages healthier eating habits and induces gardeners to incorporate home-grown produce into their diets.
Low income seniors struggle with unaffordable rents in densely populated Koreatown, in Los Angeles. Amid the high concentration of residents, there is a severe shortage of low-income and senior apartments with long waiting lists for government-assisted public housing.
The “food as medicine” movement is growing in popularity as more people look to plant-based solutions for ills that continue to plague the Black community at disproportionate rates.
