National Poverty Awareness Month

January is National Poverty Awareness Month — a time to name a reality that too often goes unseen, especially among older adults.

For many of the seniors served by St. Vincent Meals on Wheels, poverty is not an idea, but a daily reality. It looks like choosing between groceries and medication. It sounds like worry about rent, utilities, or whether help will keep coming. Most of the seniors we serve live at or below the poverty level, navigating aging, illness, and isolation on limited means — often in a city where the cost of housing alone can push them to the brink.

That is why our focus on senior nutrition matters. Food and love, delivered daily, provide safety and dignity. Through regular meals and familiar faces, seniors are seen, heard, and supported — helping them remain safely in the place they call home.

For some seniors, safety also means having access to secure, affordable housing. Hotel Dieu Senior Apartments grew directly out of what we saw through our meal program — seniors living alone in unsafe, deteriorating conditions because they had nowhere else to go. Hotel Dieu is an answer shaped by listening, offering a place of dignity, community, and belonging.

Guided by the Vincentian spirit of the Daughters of Charity, we go #BeyondTheMeal. We see. We listen. We care for the whole person. Every day, we prepare and deliver food and love — helping seniors stay safe, connected, and in their homes.

Let us begin this week with gratitude for this work — and for the donors, volunteers, and partners who make it possible as we remain committed to serving those most in need.