Zach Nunn proposes bill aimed at reducing food insecurity for rural seniors

U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn is introducing a bill aimed at ensuring low-income seniors living in rural areas can access food assistance.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program distributes food to U.S. seniors. But Nunn, a Republican who represents Iowa’s 3^rd Congressional District, said more than 100,000 eligible seniors do not participate in the program, often because they can’t reach food distribution sites.

The Delivering for Rural Seniors Act would create a pilot grant program for organizations focused on finding ways to deliver packages of food to people who live in rural areas.

It is being co-led by U.S. Rep. Jasmin Crocket, a Democrat from Texas.

“Access to healthy nutritious food is essential for seniors,” Nunn said at a news conference Monday. “But for many in rural America, mobility and transportation barriers make it nearly impossible to access even existing food sources.”

Last year, Congress approved a one-year extension of the Farm Bill. But Nunn said he’s hopeful that legislators can move forward on a new Farm Bill that could aid programs like this.

“This is a program that needs long-term planning to be able to be successful, so that not only we can keep the foods on the shelf and in the cupboard, we also have the ability to keep this going for the long term,” Nunn said.

Nunn said that even as Republicans in Congress work to slash federal spending by scrutinizing things like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, he believes programs like this should survive the cut.

“When you have a grant program for something that works, that’s where we should be spending money,” he said. “When you have, you know, a lot of the fraud, waste and abuse that we’re seeing already in the SNAP program. That’s a great way to be able to scale that money back and pay down that $36 trillion in debt.”

Nunn would not say Monday whether he would vote for a budget that includes cuts to Medicaid.

“There’s a number of proposals out there, so let’s not lock ourselves into anything right now until we actually get the reconciliation package,” he said.

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach her at [email protected] or 515-284-8244. Follow her on X at @brianneDMR.