A program providing access to fresh produce for Peoria’s low-income seniors is on pause.
For two years, the Neighborhood House Association Peoria has distributed coupon booklets for use on produce at local farmers’ markets to Peoria residents over 60 years old and within federal poverty guidelines. The program is a result of a partnership between Neighborhood House and the Central Illinois Agency on Aging, funded through the Illinois Department of Human Services.
Last year, close to 1,500 of the books were distributed. Neighborhood House CEO and President Julie Bonar says this year, there’s a hold up.
“We received word late in the day on Tuesday, July 8, that there was a funding delay and the state had not yet received the funds for those coupon books,” said Bonar. “We had already spent a day and a half handing out about 600 books.”
The program had already seen cuts. Last year, the books provided about $50 in value to area seniors. This year the coupons are worth about $25.
The organization posted a notice of the pause on the coupons to their Facebook page and notified every senior with a cell phone number on file. Bonar stresses that anyone who already has a book should hold on to it, as the coupons will eventually be usable.
“We just believe it’s a delay,” she said. “The local Agency on Aging received notice from the Illinois Department of Human Services that there was an unexpected processing delay that was preventing the coupon checks from clearing at banks and so we hope that will be resolved soon.”
The coupon program isn’t the only public food program to hit a snag in Peoria.
The nonprofit Peoria Friendship House of Christian service closed their food pantry last week, posting pictures of bare shelves and requested a community-aided restock. On Monday, the organization announced limited hours to distribute bakery items after an “overwhelming response.”
These local food issues come as, nationally, a GOP spending and tax cut megabill passed Congress and was signed into law. Planned cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for low-income Americans have already raised concerns about supply at food pantries.
Neighborhood House CEO Bonar says, for seniors on a fixed income, access to fresh produce is made more difficult by elevated grocery costs. For them and other low-income Americans, assistance like the coupon booklets can make a radical difference in available food.
Bonar recalls conversations overheard as seniors collected those first 600 coupon booklets.
“They all had things they were looking forward to,” she said. “One woman said she couldn't wait to get some peaches. Another one was hoping she would still be able to get some asparagus, and had a nice, long talk about the yellow watermelons with another client.”
Bonar says there’s no approximate timeline yet on when the state funding will come through. But she says Neighborhood House will update seniors on Facebook and by text as soon as their coupons are valid.
