Food insecurity is of great concern for many in America, especially pre-seniors and seniors. Currently, five million older adults, age 60 or older are food insecure and have to choose between buying food and another necessitates, which is a number that is expected to double by 2050. Rural areas have been shown to have the greatest need when addressing food insecurity. In particular, the state of Oklahoma indicates that one-in-six seniors are food insecure. Previously, three local food pantries in Stillwater, Oklahoma were combined to form Our Daily Bread Food and Resource Center. The purpose of this study was to survey food pantry guests at Our Daily Bread to evaluate their perception and utilization of the new food pantry since combining. In total, 211 individuals completed the survey, 104 were 50-64 years of age and 107 were 65 years of age and above. Some of the major findings from the study were that most participants utilized food pantries as their primary source of food assistance (72.7%), most participants ate less than the recommended MyPlate amounts, and most pre-senior participants made less than $12,000, which is less than ideal because pre-seniors are already at an economic disadvantage with their ineligibility for retirement, social security and Medicare. In addition, a large percentage of participants indicated using food coping mechanisms and identified barriers including often skipping meals (40.1%), stretching meals (42.8%) and 33.8% indicated they sometimes had issues preparing meals. The survey results indicated participants felt Our Daily Bread addressed barriers from the previous food pantries by often providing more fresh fruit and vegetable choices (77.2%), more dairy choices (74.2%), and more fresh meat choices (73.5%). Meanwhile only 58.2 % felt Our Daily Bread provided more education opportunities. Based on this, it is clear that Our Daily Bread has provided a greater plethora of fresh food items, but increasing nutrition education would be the next step. Nutrition education can help food pantry guests better cope with food insecurity and utilize food assistance programs, especially for pre-seniors who are not eligible for as much government assistance
