Fundación Triple-S invests in 6 projects to work with food security, social isolation
Fundación Triple-S announced it will support six initiatives that work with different low-income vulnerable populations, who live alone, have chronic conditions, and need support with food security and emotional wellbeing.
Fundación Triple-S is investing approximately $150,000 and will be channeled through a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have experience in addressing social problems in Puerto Rico, it confirmed.
“After we issued our first RFP during the last quarter of 2021, Fundación Triple-S selected projects based on their focus on vulnerable populations and their attention to food insecurity, loneliness and social isolation as aggravating factors to people’s integral health,” said Fundación Triple-S Executive Director Lydia Figueroa.
“We also placed a lot of value on these organizations’ capacity to measure the impact of their efforts as well as that they were able to combine food insecurity with attention to social isolation,” she said. “We’re concerned that these factors may have deteriorated during the pandemic. We seek to support initiatives that promote physical and mental health and strengthen social and community connections.”
The selected projects are:
Esperanza para la Vejez: This organization, founded in 1966 to meet the needs of a low-income elderly population, will work on a pilot project to address loneliness an increase social connection among scores of seniors living in a Bayamón community.
Fundación de Investigación Ciencia y Educación: This project combines research with an initiative that tackles food security and loneliness among a senior population. It will distribute the Cajita Mutua, a box of fresh produce from COSSAO, an NGO in Utuado. They will work with residents of Loíza and San Juan. Harvard University’s School of Public Health is participating in this research project that follows trends in chronic, environmental, and psychosocial ailments.
Nuestra Escuela: This entity seeks to increase social participation and community development through intergenerational programs and actions that include students of Nuestra Escuela, who are youth participating in their alternative school program, and a group of seniors living alone in Caguas.
Proyecto Plenitud: This NGO promotes sustainability, ecological agriculture and other services needed for residents of the western region, particularly in Las Marías, one of the municipalities with the highest diabetes rate in Puerto Rico and Maricaco, a municipality with the highest poverty level on the island. Its initiative “Amo a mis Abus” will distribute healthy cooked food and medical attention to seniors who live alone and lack support.
Prymed: This is a 330 health center that will use the backing of the Fundación for Proyecto Mesa, an initiative that supports nutritional health with strategies that promote healthy lifestyles and eating and will distribute non- perishable food among 900 seniors.
Waves Ahead: This NGO provides emotional support, company and food distribution for seniors who are part of the LGBT+ community.
“At Fundación Triple-S we feel honored to support these projects that advance our mission of enabling long and healthy lives, as we address health inequities,” said Figueroa.
