Long Beach, California – City of Long Beach supports Long Beach Food Pantry Delivery to deliver free nutritious groceries to the homes of senior residents in need. This service is provided by Help Me Help You (HMHY) in a mission to win the fight against hunger among our most vulnerable senior residents.
With the recent rise of the Covid-19 Delta variant and the relentless impact of the ongoing pandemic, food insecurity persists leaving millions of residents unable to access affordable and nutritious food. Among the most vulnerable are our senior residents who cannot access food pantry locations due to limitations associated with age, risk of public exposure, and underlying health conditions. More than 14% of seniors over age 65 live below the poverty line in Long Beach, CA and this is expected to grow to 22% by 2025 (Community Health Bureau). To ensure our seniors can access nutritious food, HMHY launched Long Beach Food Pantry Delivery in February, providing free weekly groceries delivered contact-free to the doorstep of senior residents. This service provides eligible seniors with fresh and packaged groceries, recipes, and essential service resources, as well as caters to special diets and cultural food preferences.
Long Beach Food Pantry Delivery services 500 senior residents each week and is supported by City of Long Beach emergency response and recovery funding. “Because of this service, obtaining nutritious food isn’t an additional worry for those most at risk from the COVID-19 virus. City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services is grateful for the continued partnership of Help Me Help You in meeting the food security needs of older adults and other at-risk individuals in Long Beach”, said Ms. Howell, Healthy Aging Center Coordinator, City of Long Beach Department of Health & Human Services.
HMHY also provides free groceries for all Long Beach residents in need via 9 food pantry locations. Seeing numbers triple at food pantries in the last six months, made it apparent there is a necessity for a food pantry to deliver to senior residents unable to access food pantries. For 78-year-old Long Beach widowed-resident, this service could not be more welcome. “I would take three buses and walk over an hour to get my food pantry groceries until I became too weak to make the trip. Thank God for HMHY, who are kindly delivering my food pantry selection of groceries to my door. I don’t know how I would survive without them”, said Thelma, HMHY Long Beach Food Pantry Delivery client.
Since its launch in February, the demand for Long Beach Food Pantry Delivery service continues to grow rapidly, resulting in requests from residents in out-of-service neighboring areas. HMHY hopes to expand the service area to continue to provide food to more seniors in need. To receive Long Beach Food Pantry Delivery, please check your eligibility and register at www.helpmehelpu.org/lbfpd. Help feed a senior in need by donating at www.helpmehelpu.org/donate-now.
Established in 2002, Help Me Help You (HMHY) is a 501(c)(3) community-based nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families in need by increasing access to food, public benefits, economic security, and social security benefits. HMHY provides essential services to more than 30,000 individuals annually, focusing on seniors; children; single mothers; disabled individuals; veterans; and the homeless. These services work to reduce hunger and poverty, improve nutrition and health, boost family economic security, as well as motivate and transition residents from lives of poverty to self-sufficiency. HMHY also measures the impact of services to improve health outcomes for individuals and the community at large.
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