Photo by Elvert Barnes

D.C. is launching a new program to provide senior residents with more food and groceries in communities where household incomes are low and food options are scarce.

Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the pilot program, dubbed “Good Food,” today at the sixth annual Senior Symposium at Ballou High School in Southeast.

Good Food is for residents who currently participate in the D.C. Office of Aging’s home-delivery program that provides meals to seniors across the city who are homebound, live below the poverty level, or are at highest risks of nutritional deficiencies and institutionalization.

Participants who currently receive one meal per day will now receive groceries or three meals per day, four days a week. They must be residents of Wards 7 and 8, which have the city’s highest concentration of food deserts.

According to a recent report from D.C. Hunger Solutions, there are three groceries stores for the roughly 149,750 District residents who live in Wards 7 and 8. There’s also a disproportionate amount of sit-down restaurants and food delivery companies that service neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River.

The office of aging also partners with the Capital Area Food Bank to offer healthy food items like fruit, vegetables, and cereal to low-income seniors throughout the city. Seniors can also get farmers’ market vouchers during summer months.

Mayor Bowser said in a release that the new program is part of her work to make the city more accessible for people, regardless of age. “Whether it’s through preserving and producing affordable housing, building programs that make it easier to age in place, or investing in health and wellness initiatives, we will continue to do all we can to create a more inclusive, age friendly city.”

The pilot program will begin with 75 participants and it will run from July through September.