Senior Boxes

The Senior Box Program, also known as the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), is a program through the United States Department of Agriculture, hosted locally by Second Harvest (click here to learn more). The food packages provide seniors living below the poverty line with about 25 pounds of critically needed food each month. Participants receive real food and not food vouchers. The focus is on nutritional supplementation and provides a variety of fruits, vegetables, healthy juices, dairy, potatoes, cereal, rice, and protein.

It's not always easy to know what to do with the ingredients provided and sometimes it's nice to learn new ideas for what to make from common staples like apples and beans. With the help of Rayshal Spalding of the University of Idaho's Dietetic Program, The Kitchen was able to develop some fabulous recipes using common ingredients found in these boxes. These recipes have been developed to be easy to prepare with minimal kitchen tools, involve as few ingredients as possible, and taste great!

If you are an agency partner, some great ways to use these recipes are to:

• Include them in your organization's newsletters
• Print and distribute them with the senior boxes
• Post them in your organization's waiting area or other announcement board
• Talk to the people you serve about which commodities are harder to use and share ideas with them