For Immediate Release:
July 17, 2003

Contact:
Ann McCormack, RD, MPH, Bureau Chief
Bureau of Community Food and Nutrition Assistance
Section for Nutritional Health and Services
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services
800-733-6251

New authorization allows twice as many low-income
Missourians to receive monthly food boxes

Twice as many qualifying low-income citizens in Missouri will now be served boxes of nutritious commodity foods on a monthly basis, thanks to the efforts of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services in recently securing additional funding and caseload authorization from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Currently, only about 5 percent of eligible participants statewide are served by the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which is administered by the department’s Section for Nutritional Health and Services. The number of low-income seniors, women and children served each month will be increased from 5,000 to 10,000, still less than 10 percent of the state’s estimated 110,000 eligible participants. Those served are provided a food box worth more than $40, which is filled with bread and grain products, fruits, fruit juices and vegetables, meat and cheese, and canned and powdered milk. These foods help to supplement the diets of low-income participants, and increase their intakes of critical vitamins and minerals, such as iron, calcium, vitamin A and vitamin C.

To qualify, low-income seniors must be age 60 and above. Others qualifying for the monthly food supplements include low-income pregnant women, breastfeeding women, women who gave birth within the last year, infants and children up to their sixth birthday who are not also participating in WIC (Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children).

The program is currently offered in St. Louis City, St. Louis County and in 10 counties in southeast Missouri through the St. Louis Area Food Bank and the Bootheel Food Bank. The expanded caseload authorization will allow the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to offer the program in Kansas City through Harvesters, in Springfield through Ozarks Food Harvest, in St. Joseph through America’s Second Harvest of Greater St. Joseph, and in Central Missouri through the Central Missouri Food Bank.

For additional information about the supplemental food program, CSFP, call Section for Nutritional Health and Services office at 800-733-6251 or visit its web page at www.dhss.state.mo.us/MissouriNutrition.