March for Meals 2012!

March 2, 2012

Hundreds of people came out to the State Capital Building on March 1^st to show their support, the need for Kupuna Care, and to raise awareness of the plight of senior hunger.

Governor Neil Abercrombie, Mayor Peter Carlisle, Senators Jill Tokuda and Glenn Wakai and Representatives Henry Aquino, Linda Ichiyama, Karl Rhoads, Clift Tsuji, Ryan Yamane and other elected officials joined hundreds of supporters as they lined Beretania Street in front of the Capitol, waving signs to encourage drivers to help end senior hunger in Hawaii by supporting Kupuna Care.

Kupuna Care is a state-funded, county administered program that provides basic services to frail older adults who can’t live at home without assistance. Services include home-delivered meals, personal care, help with chores and transportation assistance. These services provide an important safety net that can help low and middle-income adults avoid going into poverty and being forced into more costly care settings.

Lanakila Meals on Wheels’ is a Kupuna Care provider and delivers 4,000 meals each week to Hawaii’s seniors in need. Due to limited funding, many Kupuna Care programs throughout the state are facing wait lists. Lanakila Meals on Wheels’ wait list consists of more than 200 homebound kupuna. Sack Senior Hunger, a new initiative of Lanakila Meals on Wheels’ was introduced to help reduce the growing number of seniors on their wait list. The Sack Senior Hunger campaign encourages working professionals and students to bring their lunch from home for one day and donate the money they would have spent buying lunch.

March for Meals is an annual national campaign introduced by The Meals on Wheels Association of America, held in March of every year, and designed to increase public awareness for local senior nutrition programs. The campaign takes place in the month of March because it was during this month that the law was enacted that included Senior Nutrition Programs in the Older Americans Act.