{"id":59712,"date":"2025-12-06T18:58:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=59712"},"modified":"2025-12-06T18:58:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T23:58:20","slug":"lakeland-nonprofit-helping-seniors-stay-fed-among-increasing-food-insecurity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/12\/06\/lakeland-nonprofit-helping-seniors-stay-fed-among-increasing-food-insecurity\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland nonprofit helping seniors stay fed among increasing food insecurity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Imagine having to make the tough decision to pay your bills or buy groceries. Advocates say that\u2019s the harsh reality for many seniors who are navigating not having enough money for food.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"e5eddf\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #e5eddf;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/download-1-2.webp?resize=225%2C225&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-59713 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/download-1-2.webp?w=225&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/download-1-2.webp?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s leading some seniors to seek help from nonprofits like&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/viste.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Volunteers in Service to the Elderly<\/a>&nbsp;in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While most of us get in our cars to head to the grocery store, for seniors in Lakeland, their drive is to VISTE to pick up their monthly groceries free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When one cart comes in, another one goes out \u2014 it\u2019s a cycle that Welton Morris knows all too well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEvery month, once a month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He is one of more than 4,000 seniors who visit the nonprofit to pick up groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A line forms, and volunteers pack each car with the month\u2019s assortment of goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently, Welton said he\u2019s found himself&nbsp;relying on this service even more&nbsp;to stock his fridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe grocery store is so expensive when you go in the store, very expensive, and it&#8217;s hard, especially when you\u2019re on a fixed income. It&#8217;s hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Steve Bissonnette is the president of VISTE and said the number of seniors they serve&nbsp;is increasing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re averaging about 130 clients each day during the week, almost a 30% increase just in the past few months,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The nonprofit&#8217;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/viste.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/VISTE-2024-Impact-Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">impact report<\/a>&nbsp;from last year&nbsp;shows&nbsp;a 9.5% increase in clients. Its supplemental groceries program increased 6.2%, providing groceries to more than a thousand households.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bissonnette said that need has increased again in the last few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe can only attribute that to the environmental circumstances that people are uncertain about and fearful of, and we want to make sure that they at least get basic food to remain in their own home,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the food comes from Feeding Tampa Bay, the United States Department of Agriculture and items they purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Groceries that will go a long way for seniors, like Yoleida Cardona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cFrom an economic standpoint, my husband receives a small amount of money, and this helps us move forward,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There is also a lot of people in need, and there are those who live on their own that need this.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a&nbsp;program&nbsp;that has become a lifeline for many seniors to keep their pantries stocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The nonprofit also has a hot meal program for seniors who are unable to attend the grocery pick-up or cook for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those meals are provided twice a week with the help of Florida Southern College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine having to make the tough decision to pay your bills or buy groceries. Advocates say that\u2019s the harsh reality for many seniors who are navigating not having enough money&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMTJcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEtMi53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yMjUlMkMyMjUmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJMYWtlbGFuZCBub25wcm9maXQgaGVscGluZyBzZW5pb3JzIHN0YXkgZmVkIGFtb25nIGluY3JlYXNpbmcgZm9vZCBpbnNlY3VyaXR5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.X4YnGumQZ8RMVUVuAcRzbD66ACIIbKA3YOnwf6ZUjocMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59713,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/download-1-2.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[12791],"class_list":["post-59712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-lakeland-nonprofit-helping-seniors-stay-fed-among-increasing-food-insecurity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59714,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59712\/revisions\/59714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}