Commodity Supplemental Food Program CSFP
Commodity Supplemental Food Program CSFP – Provides a monthly box of non-perishables to qualifying seniors. We are able serve 4,000 seniors monthly. Call to see if you qualify – Zoila Ogden 631 873 4775 or zoila@islandharvest.org.
Through the federally funded Commodity Supplemental Food Program, eligible seniors over 60 were provided with more than 35,800 boxes of nutritious USDA foods. This equates to the distribution of over 833,000 healthy meals.
Senior Mobile Market
The Senior Mobile Market delivers food directly to people in need, and enables us to increase the availability of nutritious perishable and non perishable items for people in low-income and senior neighborhoods. The pantry is stocked with items such as rice, canned protein, pasta, and breakfast items, as well as fresh vegetables, fruits, bread, meat and poultry.
The service model for the Senior Mobile Market is simple: Island Harvest schedules regular weekly distributions directly to individual clients who live in low-income neighborhoods or senior housing developments. The food is off loaded from the Mobile Market and distributed in pre-sorted packages of food or even set up on large folding tables so that the clients to “shop” for food, choosing items they need.
This program currently visits five senior, low-income housing sites each week. During each pantry visit, the staff arranges for a partner to join the distributions or share education that is provided to the individuals in efforts to link them to available resources.
Island Harvest understands that the root causes of hunger may vary so in addition to food, the Mobile Market partners with other agencies to bring needed experts help. These Island Harvest and partner specialists will accompany the mobile food pantry and offer benefit information and application assistance, streamlined referrals to community organizations, nutritious cooking demonstrations, healthy living workshops, etc.