SAN ANTONIO – When seniors enter retirement, a good amount of them solely rely on their social security checks as income.
Sometimes those checks aren’t enough to cover groceries.
“Those social security checks are $600, $700, $800 a month. When you are making less than $1,000 dollars, they are paying their rent, their utility bills, their healthcare costs, and there is nothing left for food,” said San Antonio Food Bank CEO Eric Cooper.
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That’s where the San Antonio Food Bank steps in with it’s Convoy of Hope, a partnership with the city of San Antonio.
Ten trucks on Wednesday were filled with food boxes that 12,000 seniors in San Antonio depend on every month. It’s part of the food bank’s Project HOPE (Healthy Options Program for the Elderly), a program that provides free groceries to seniors at city-operated senior centers.
Wednesday marks the 16th year the food bank has partnered with the city for it’s Convoy of Hope, where the boxes will be delivered to the city senior centers by City Council members and the community.
“It’s a holiday box,” Cooper said. “It’s a box that brings not just nourishment and body of spirit, it’s what the holidays are all about. It’s sharing, it’s caring to let seniors know we are mindful of them that we love them."
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Each box contains two boxes of cereal, two quarts of juice, four cans of vegetables, two cans of fruit, one can of protein, two shelf-stable cartons of milk and a block of cheese.
The food bank provides food boxes to seniors every month of the year.
