Efforts to End Hunger Among Seniors, Children in CT

AARP Connecticut is teaming up with End Hunger Connecticut and Foodshare, a  nonprofit serving Hartford and Tolland counties, to enroll more qualified state residents in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. AARP reports that in Connecticut  more than 386,000 residents receive help paying for groceries each month under the program, but that only 34% of adults age 60-plus who are eligible for SNAP have enrolled - many because they didn't know they were eligible. State residents 60-plus may qualify if their monthly income is less than $1,680 for an individual or $2,268 for a couple.

Foodshare recently announced that in 2011, 3,685 Foodshare volunteers contributed over 38,000 hours to advance their local efforts to support people in need of food.

And last week, End Hunger Connecticut launched the state's participation in No Kid Hungry, a national initiative to end huger among children by 2015.  It has been estimated that there are 127,000 children in Connecticut who are going hungry.  The organization will be sponsoring the state's first School Breakfast Summit on May 4 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford.