Description/Abstract
In 2023, 7.4 million adults ages 60 and over in the United States were food insecure. As the number of older people at risk of food insecurity in the U.S. continues to rise, effective policy responses are critical. The current policy responses to old age food insecurity are complex, costly, and not nearly effective enough.
Based on the book, Food for Thought: Understanding Older Adults Food Insecurity, this brief summarizes five policy recommendations to improve food insecurity among U.S. older adults. The authors recommend measuring food security in multidimensional ways, treating food insecurity as a health issue, adopting SNAP policies that increase benefits and participation, connecting food assistance programs with other social welfare programs, and increasing income support for older adults.
Document Type
Policy Brief
Date
9-10-2025
Keywords
Older adults, food insecurity, policy, SNAP
Language
English
Series
Policy Briefs Series
Acknowledgements
This work was supported in part by Grant #1908-17412 to Madonna Harrington Meyer and Grant #1905-15081 to Colleen Heflin from the Russell Sage Foundation. Any opinions expressed are those of the principal investigator(s) alone and should not be construed as representing the opinions of the Foundation. Our thanks to Camille Bagin, Claire Pendergrast, Sarah Reilly, Winston Scott, Rebecca Wang, Shanel Khaliq, Frank Sarfo, Anna Delapaz, Gabriella Alphonso, Clay Fannin, Siobhan O’Keefe, Hyojeong Kim, Julia Stafford, Xiaohan Sun, Lauryn Quick, Yuwei Zhang, and Dongmei Zuo with data and research assistance. Our thanks to Suzanne Nichols, our editors at the Russell Sage Foundation, Shannon Monnat, and Alyssa Kirk for editorial assistance.
Disciplines
Food Studies | Gerontology | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Public Policy | Social Policy
Recommended Citation
Heflin, Colleen M. and Harrington Meyer, Madonna. (2025). Policy Recommendations to Reduce Old Age Food Insecurity in the United States. Center for Policy Research. Policy Brief #20. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.14305/rt.cpr.2025.4.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
