Food Insecurity Doesn't Retire

This week, Calgary Food Bank released a report that outlined the reality of food insecurity for seniors. We're grateful for this deep dive. It's something that we see every day at Unison's food bank (the only food bank that specifically caters to seniors in Calgary).

Food Insecurity Doesn't Retire explores the mechanisms behind failing community infrastructure that puts many seniors at risk of being food-poor. Increased cost of living expenses have forced some older adults into a financial corner, where they have to decide whether to pay for meds, or food. Rent, or transportation. The result is high numbers of seniors who don't have enough money to buy healthy food, or enough food. Seniors become unwell, which also affects their mental health and overall wellbeing.

Unison is honoured to be par to be part of the solution. We use a multi-pronged approach to food security. In addition to the Unison Market, we offer grocery deliveries and friendly check-ins in Calgary, Meals on Wheels in Medicine Hat, and we have been growing our own fresh veggies in-house, which we donate to the Market. This winter, we also launched a social enterprise - the Garden Studio - to raise funds to better support our food security measures. 

Unison also gladly provided context for Global News, CBC Calgary, and City News Calgary and our multi-talented Thrive Food Security Manager, Ashley Yeoman, stepped up to the spotlight to share what Unison works on to support vulnerable seniors:

Study finds more seniors in Calgary accessing food bank 
Many older Calgary adults face growing risk of food insecurity, study suggests | CBC News 
 Canadian food banks reduce services amid 'unprecedented' demand 

Read Calgary Food Bank's full report here.

Support seniors directly by kindly donating  to Unison. Unison also graciously accepts food donations all year-long.