Senior Mobile Food Pantry to be discontinued

COLFAX - Funding for the Senior Mobile Food Pantry (SMFP) program for Whitman County is being discontinued at the end of 2023.

Colfax Council on Aging Executive Director Paige Collins said that the Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington funded the program. The program will no longer be funded since American Rescue Plan (ARP) and COVID-19 funding is beginning to be pulled back.

"The SMFP program was a way for the Council on Aging to get healthy, nutritionally-dense foods out to Whitman County senior citizens," Collins said, adding that they did this by bringing groceries to most of the senior meal sites they hosted throughout the county each month.

Collins said they had found different ways to get food to the seniors throughout the county.

In LaCrosse, Collins said Carter Foods would invoice the Council on Aging and bring the groceries across the street each month at the Cafe to the senior meal.

"In Endicott and Palouse, volunteers pick up the groceries from Rosauers in Colfax and bring them to the senior meal locations in their towns," she said.

In Rosalia and Oakesdale, Collins said that the COA would order loads of food that volunteers picked up and brought to the food pantry distribution to add to the offerings for the seniors.

Collins further said that in Colfax, the food pantry is open for the seniors who have the senior meal on Mondays and Thursdays at the pantry building.

The lead cook at the Palouse Senior meal, Sue Wilcomb, spoke to the volunteers who participated in the program. "We even had a volunteer who is taking bags of food to the seniors who live at the Cove," Wilcomb said, adding that the volunteer contacted them, asked them what they would want, and made up the bags to take them there. "It was a real community effort, and it was wonderful to see," she said.

Collins would order the foods distributed under the program, starting with the list of requested food for the seniors' group in Endicott. Collins said the list template changes slightly each month, noting that it is based on the local seniors' needs, pantry offerings, and what is available.

"Shawn McAdams at Rosauers has been a great help getting most of the orders organized," she said, adding that he has them packed up on carts and ready to roll at the designated date and time for volunteers to take them to their towns.

Collins is working on finding alternate funding to continue the program through 2024., "It has really become important to the over 300 local seniors that benefit from the additional food in their pantries," Collins said.

Collins also mentioned that the funding for the Colton/Uniontown Senior Meal has also been cut for 2024, and they plan to get that program into current funding levels to continue. "We can't cancel this meal now," she said, "So many seniors count on this hot meal each week," she said, adding that it's not only for the great food but for the social time with friends and neighbors.