Making healthy food accessible for seniors

Fresh produce is prepackaged and ready for delivery to residents of AHEPA 39 Senior Apartments, one of eight area locations served by Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley’s program. Elder Services purchases the produce from local farms and delivers it to participants weekly during the growing season. Pictured are (from left) Lucinda Nolet, resident services coordinator at AHEPA 39 Senior Apartments; Justin Jordan, Elder Services program manager; and Maria Arias, Elder Services healthy living center coordinator. Haverhill Life staff photo

Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley is serving seniors in the region through a program that delivers fresh produce weekly for 16 weeks during the grow­ing season. The program serves 350 people at eight local residential sites. Each participant receives a package including fresh vegetables and usually some fruit.

The program, in its seventh year, is

serving a need that was present even before the pandemic. “Our needs as­sessment shows that food insecurity is one of the top concerns for elderly residents,” says Justin Jordan, program manager for Elder Services of the Mer­rimack Valley. “This program helps to resolve three points of difficulty for seniors: transportation, shopping and financial.”