The Washington Home Invests $704K to Transform Healthy Food Access for Older Adults Across DC

New citywide collaboration unites 11 partners to tackle food insecurity through coordinated, wraparound support

WASHINGTON, DC (May 15, 2026)  – As food insecurity rapidly grows among older adults in Washington, DC, The Washington Home (TWH) has launched its Healthy Food Access Collaboration – a new citywide grant initiative designed to create a more connected, coordinated approach to food support services.

Through a $704,906 investment across 11 partner organizations, the collaboration will expand healthy food access for thousands of older adults throughout the District while reducing barriers.

The initiative is part of TWH’s newly redesigned FY26 grant strategy, which shifts funding from isolated intervention programs to prioritizing collective accountability, strategic coordination, and long-term systems change for deeper impact.

In total, TWH awarded $4.5 million in FY26 grants supporting initiatives across all eight Wards, including collaborations focused on healthcare access, social isolation, workforce development, and aging-in-place supports.

At the center of this collaboration effort is a growing challenge facing older adults in DC: food insecurity. The Healthy Food Access Collaboration is projected to reach approximately 8,600 older adults and increase healthy food access for at least 50% of older adults projected to experience food insecurity in Washington, DC.

Coordinated Food Support Network

Food insecurity among older adults is rarely a standalone issue. Changes in health, mobility, caregiving responsibilities, transportation access, housing stability, or income can quickly affect a person’s ability to shop for or prepare meals.

Rather than funding a single food program, TWH’s collaborative model creates a coordinated continuum of care including:

• • Expanding food credits and increasing participating provider sites
  • Strengthening outreach, referrals, and shared impact measurement
  • Supporting grocery and meal delivery through four partner organizations
  • Providing transportation assistance through three partner organizations
  • Creating integrated pathways to food-support across all eight DC Wards

“Too often older adults and caregivers are forced to navigate multiple systems during some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives,” said Crystal Carr Townsend, MPA, CEO of The Washington Home. “This collaboration is about creating a connected support system where organizations are working together to meet the needs of older adults.”

Collaboration Partners Deliver Impact

TWH is proud to partner with these 11 organizations to deliver services across the food access continuum so older adults can receive multiple points of support:

• • Bread for the City: Client-choice pantry access, leverages food credits with CAFB to expand dignified access.
  • Capital Area Food Bank (CAFB): Coordinates the food credit pilot and shared data, distributes monthly fresh produce through senior programs.
  • Christ House: Medically appropriate daily meals for medical respite patients, meals for senior recovery housing residents.
  • DC Central Kitchen: Seven fresh, seasonal meals delivered weekly for mobility-limited older adults (citywide delivery support).
  • DC Greens: Food is Medicine, nutrition, and wellness training at The Well at Oxon Run (transportation support as needed).
  • East River Family Strengthening Collaborative (ERFSC): Home grocery delivery support in Wards 1, 7, and 8 (Amazon Fresh/Instacart/subsidized delivery).
  • Food For All DC: Monthly home-delivered groceries choice-based Food is Medicine (supports diabetes/hypertension).
  • FRESHFARM: Aggregates local produce; delivers wholesale produce bags (no markup) to partners via a food credit pilot.
  • Miriam’s Kitchen: Nutritious meals and case management for older adults experiencing homelessness or housing instability.
  • Seabury Resources for Aging: Coordinates transportation, grocery and farmers’ market trips, dining-site food education programming.
  • We Are Family Senior Outreach Network: Volunteer-powered food credits, grocery trips, home delivery, and emergency deliveries.

Healthy Food Access Collaboration partners celebrate TWH’s funding of its new citywide grant initiative designed to create a more connected, coordinated approach to food support services in the District.

“This generous investment will spark important conversations about where and how we can do more – together – for DC seniors,” said Radha Muthiah, president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank. “The Washington Home’s remarkable funding recognizes that older adults need reliable access to nutritious food today, while also enabling our region’s food security community to consider how we better meet that need over time. We’re deeply grateful for their continued leadership and vision in addressing senior hunger across the District.”

Together, the collaborations represent a new model for how Washington, DC can address aging, health, and food insecurity – through coordinated community care that meets older adults where they are.

About The Washington Home

The Washington Home is a private foundation that provides funding to entities that create and deliver innovative, compassionate, and well-managed programs to improve the quality of life for elderly and/or terminally ill residents in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Founded in 1888, The Washington Home, until recently, provided long-term care to residents of its nursing home facility in upper Northwest Washington, DC, hospice care to patients in their own homes, and care in the in-patient hospice wing of the nursing home.

In recent years, the Board of Directors of The Washington Home directed a repositioning of the organization by ceasing hands-on care and consolidating its financial resources to be deployed for maximum impact in accordance with its longstanding mission. Learn more at www.TheWashingtonHome.org.