Every Wednesday for six weeks, the Food Bank’s community nutrition team visited St. Elizabeth senior housing facility in Providence to bring the residents their Healthy Habits nutrition education content. St. Elizabeth resident, the funny and charming Lenny, didn’t miss a single class. Although Lenny is blind, and suffers from neuropathy, as well as being a cancer survivor, he remains resilient. “I’m like a broken truck that ain’t been going. But it ain’t stopped running yet,” Lenny quipped.
He credits his tight-knit community with providing a sense of belonging and care. Though Lenny’s blindness prevents him from cooking in his apartment, he said he learned a lot about healthy eating from the class series, and most importantly, loved connecting with his neighbors and the Healthy Habits team.
“My neighbors say to me, ‘you coming to class?’ And I say, ‘you know I am.’ Because learning something, getting healthy food… it’s good. We need this.”
Lenny receives SNAP benefits but is limited to shopping only where the bus stops, which means he isn’t able to bargain-hunt. Rising grocery prices for staples like milk, juice, bread, and eggs have severely impacted his budget, so he buys less.
A weekly Healthy Habits class might not seem like much. But for people like Lenny, it means everything.