Tim Icely did everything he needed to do to save for retirement. He worked 27 years in hospitality and hotel management before he was furloughed during the pandemic and forced to retire at age 74.
Icely is now 76 years old, single, has no dependents or spouse, and lives alone in Van Nuys. Half of his Social Security check goes toward rent, and sometimes he feels like he's tiptoeing on the brink of disaster.
“I'm too rich for most of these [poverty] programs,” said Icely, who does not qualify for CalFresh, California food stamps.
But Icely has kept hunger at bay thanks to five free meals she receives at the start of each week through the Los Angeles Rapid Response Senior Meals Program, an effort launched during the pandemic to help low-income seniors. income and confined to their homes. The home-delivered meals supplement her diet at a time when soaring inflation is pushing her grocery budget to $200 a month.
Icely is one of 5,800 seniors at risk of losing this food resource because the program is set to expire this fall and the city may be hard-pressed to extend it due to a looming budget shortfall. The program, which was first authorized last year with a budget of $11 million, can continue if the City Council can find funds to extend it.
“It is imperative that the city ensures our vulnerable seniors do not go hungry,” Councilwoman Heather Hutt said in a statement. Hutt proposed a motion to council's Budget, Finance and Innovation Committee to reallocate $8 million from budget reserves to extend this program into the next fiscal year.
Committee Chairman Councilman Bob Blumenfield responded by asking the city's Department on Aging to evaluate the status of the program, eligibility requirements, other forms of funding and alternative meal programs.
This program “was created during COVID to help get meals to people in isolation. It was never intended to continue in perpetuity,” Blumenfield communications director Jake Flynn said in an email.
Meal delivery programs were effective during the pandemic, said Kayla de la Haye, director of the USC Institute for Food System Equity. Food insecurity among older people did not increase as it did among younger adults, she said. She attributes this to the city's “targeted and effective programs for seniors, like food delivery, that expanded so quickly” during stay-at-home orders.
As pandemic restrictions have been lifted, he said, it has become less ideal for Los Angeles to pay for these types of services.
“Food delivery has disadvantages, and social isolation is one of them,” De la Haye said. Studies have shown that loneliness among older people can lead to adverse health risks. Then there's the question of cost, she said, noting that it's cheaper to serve meals in groups.
In a report by City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo, he advised against continuing the program due to budget constraints. It costs the city about $9.20 per meal to reimburse contractors like Revolution Foods and Everytable.
But De la Haye does not support eliminating programs like Rapid Response Senior Meals. He said they can be effective in addressing the hidden food insecurity of older people who cannot leave their homes and face increased risk in crowded markets and restaurants, as new variants of COVID-19 are still developing. And he worries that abruptly cutting those programs could leave low-income seniors behind in their time of greatest need.
“Things are much more difficult now than even in the first months of the pandemic, with food prices, inflation and rental prices,” De la Haye said. Her 2023 research found that 44% of low-income households in Los Angeles faced food insecurity, the highest rate in the last decade.
“We are at the worst food insecurity rates we have seen in the county in a long time,” he said. A 2017 study by the Congressional Hunger Center estimated that 1.5 million Los Angeles County residents are food insecure, of which 11% are seniors, or about 165,000 people.
The Rapid Response Senior Meals Program is just one of many food delivery services in Los Angeles County trying to address this growing need, but the wait list for that program is now 1,400 seniors, according to Revolution Foods.
“Los Angeles is an exceptionally car-centric city, and many seniors who do not qualify as 'homebound' still cannot safely drive or walk the distances necessary to meet their daily dietary needs,” said Dominic Engels, director Revolution Foods executive said in public comment to the Budget, Finance and Innovation Committee.
Amy Zhao, social services program manager at Chinatown Service Center, said she receives at least two or three calls a week from Chinese seniors asking about the Rapid Response Senior Meals Program. Many of Chinatown's older residents are facing a food desert after local grocery stores closed following Walmart's arrival and departure from the historic neighborhood. She said it has been more than five years since residents have had a grocery store with fresh produce.
According to de la Haye's research, Black and Latino communities are hardest hit by food insecurity, and Asian Americans in particular are the most likely to face nutritional insecurity, at a rate 2.2 times higher than that of white residents of Los Angeles County. Nutritional insecurity is having limited access to healthy, culturally relevant foods, which is associated with poorer mental health and diabetes risk.
“People in this local area have to take the bus… 30, 40 minutes away to go to Superior Grocers to buy groceries,” Zhao said. “If you want to go buy Asian food, you have to take the bus for an hour to get to the San Gabriel Valley.”
If the City Council allows the Rapid Response Senior Meals Program to end, De la Haye said, city officials must do more to address the fundamental issues of senior social isolation and food insecurity.
De la Haye is an advocate for walkable cities where people can get their essential services within a 15-minute radius of their home. He may be a pipe dream for Los Angeles, but in the meantime, he's been working on another solution: launching Open Access LA, which provides free resources and opportunities for local food businesses.
“We just don't have autonomy over the food we have locally,” De la Haye said. She said she wants public officials to reimagine what a healthy, resilient and equitable food environment looks like. She hopes the city will invest in more long-term solutions to help local entrepreneurs get off to a good start.
There is evidence that having more local people involved in food production generates benefits for a community even in a sprawling place like Los Angeles, De la Haye said. These local businesses are “able to better meet the needs of their community members and keep profits local,” she said.
