‘I can’t make ends meet’: Lori Trahan invites local residents to share issues of food access at virtual listening session

LOWELL — Residents in the 3rd Congressional District will inform new federal policy around food quality and access after U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan hosted a virtual listening session on hunger, health and nutrition Tuesday night.

The event featured a panel of local health experts and advocates, followed by a period of community feedback, where residents shared their own personal struggles with food insecurity, access and other challenges.

Trahan introduced the conversation by emphasizing the impact the listening session could play on a national level — ahead of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in September, local officials will share information and insight from the listening session with President Biden’s administration to inform future strategy on eliminating food and health disparities in the country.

This is all part of Biden’s effort to end hunger and increase exercise and healthy eating by 2030.

“This is an important opportunity for our district to make our voices heard in the White House,” Trahan said. “Your thoughts and opinions will directly contribute to federal policy initiatives, and I couldn’t be more grateful to each of you for taking the time to be here tonight.”

Close to 130 people were tuned into the call when Tufts Medicine President and CEO Michael Dandorph thanked Trahan for her “relentless advocacy” to improve the lives of her constituents. Before introducing the panelists, Dandorph expressed the severe need for this discussion and said he hopes to hold more sessions like this in the next few months.

“As the CEO at Tufts Medicine, I’m incredibly well aware of the importance of food access, addressing hunger, really thinking about how we can improve upon limited nutrition,” Dandorph said. “Those can really create a lot of serious health issues for our patients and our consumers and can really contribute to the widening gaps of care in our community in many ways.”

Prior to the panel discussion, Jeanmerli Gonzalez, program manager of Lowell Community Health Center’s REACH LoWELL, spoke about her work on addressing disparities impacting Southeast Asian and “Latinx” residents, specifically when it comes to diabetes care.

The health center also conducted a “community foods assessment” with Mill City Grows to discover what Lowell residents need. From those findings, Gonzalez said they gathered concerns about quality of life, cost of food, education and more, and REACH LoWELL will continue to focus on getting people to fresh, healthy food.

“Understanding that it’s not just the clinical departments, it’s not about seeing a provider, and that it’s much more,” Gonzalez said. “It’s about making sure that the resources are available on the other end so that our communities are able to focus on their health … focus on their diabetes.”

Other panelists, including Dwelling House of Hope Executive Director Levenia Furusa, spoke about the damaging effects of inflation, which have caused gas, food prices and rental costs to skyrocket.

Rebecca Williams, director of integrated care and case management at Lowell Community Health Center, said undocumented people are often hesitant to apply to SNAP benefits and other services. And while many grocery stores in Lowell are on a bus line, Williams noted the difficulty in carrying so many bags on public transportation, especially for the elderly or those with small children.

“How long can you wait for a bus in a 90-degree temperature with things that are cold that need to be refrigerated?” Williams asked.

But there are so many other obstacles that are closely tied to food access, Williams said, including housing instability.

Dozens of residents shared their concerns, including one woman who shared how the higher cost of living has forced her to buy cheaper and less healthy foods. Now, her blood pressure is up and, being immunocompromised, she feels isolated.

“I am a retired school teacher since COVID, and even with Social Security, I can’t make ends meet,” she said. “Even those who have more than others are still struggling, and because of this, between the pandemic and the inflation and everything, I’m struggling and it is now affecting my health.”

Another participant suggested that the country needs to step up and address hunger in bigger ways, instead of relying on nonprofit agencies to do the work for them.

“I think leaving hunger to charity and volunteers in a society like ours, the richest society that’s ever existed, is wrong,” he said. “There should be a federal or state program that gives (people) transitional help. I think we really need to rethink hunger.”

For more information on the White House’s upcoming conference and to share input to address these food crises, visit bit.ly/3O2Xg0Y.