UPDATE: LANSING - Elder Law of Michigan is a non-profit program that helps older adults with their legal, financial, health, and nutrition concerns. They also do housing and pension counseling for those who have troubles with their housing and pension benefits. The organization noticed in 2001 that many senior citizens in Michigan were going without food to pay for other essential items like medicines and utilities.

Kate White, the Executive Director of Elder Law says, "We looked around to see what benefits we could add to the mix to make sure that older adults had enough food to eat and were still able to afford their most essential things like medicine and utilities...and we realized that the food assistance program was under-used by older adults."

So the MiCAFE program was developed. The acronym stands for the Michigan Coordinated Access to Food for the Elderly. Its designed to help older adults find and enroll in benefits like food and medical assistance, as well as drug programs to ensure that seniors can meet there most basic needs. Finding and signing up for government assistance programs can be difficult for people who have never utilized government assistance before or never knew they existed. MiCAFE works to remedy those difficulties.

Elder Law of Michigan is now also in Meridian Township and participating with the Township Offices to bring benefits to those in need.

ORIGINAL STORY: LANSING - The MiCafe program is available to help Michigan senior citizens make ends meet.