Starving Seniors?
Starving seniors? Is that too harsh a word?
Let’s ratchet it down: hungry.
Or, maybe: food insecure. Yeah, that’s better. It sounds better anyway.
Call it what you want, the event is the same. It’s your grandmother or grandfather (or me…I’m certainly a grandmother) caught in a situation where there’s simply not enough food in the house.
Seniors living on Social Security are finding themselves routinely choose between food and medicine, food and transportation. When they need new clothes, seniors regularly shop at the boutique of the closet.
The issues with seniors and food insecurity are serious because when seniors no longer have the money to buy the food they need for proper nutrition or why they can no longer buy the medicines they need, they become ill and finally end up being cared for by their children or they end up in a nursing home.
I know many stories about:
The older woman in Woodstock living on mashed potatoes.
The older woman in Bearsville who ended up in a nursing home when she was cut off from her pantry take out food and didn’t have the resources or physical ability to get to a grocery store.
The older man who doesn’t have enough money for food and is slowly starving to death.
There is food available for all these people
if they can get to a pantry
if they can connect with a pantry offering take out food
if they can sign up for SNAP (food stamps).
I recently spoke with a retired friend. “Richard, do you get SNAP?”
“No.”
“Why Richard? SNAP is usually easy to get. All you have to do is apply.”
“Well, I’m getting by without it. Let someone else, needier than me, get the money.”
“Richard, think about getting SNAP. This is something you paid for with your taxes. Why leave money on the table?”
I haven’t convinced him yet. However, we’re not through negotiating. As seniors, we’re in a situation where every little bit helps.
The barriers to SNAP for seniors are great. Seniors resist going to a pantry, soup kitchen, getting SNAP until they simply can’t resist any longer. I know the feeling. We grew up as children and went into adulthood feeling that if we worked hard and paid our taxes, we would end up okay. We worked all our lives believing this. And now, there simply isn’t enough.
With this event comes feelings of inadequacy and self blame. “I must have done something wrong. Here I am living hand-to-mouth. I don’t even have enough money for food. What did I do wrong?”
I don’t like a whole generation of people blaming themselves. I feel we’re not totally to blame. The rules have changed. Because we’re retired, we’re not in the rules making game anymore. Retirees are somewhat disempowered. Whatever happened to the Grey Panthers?
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The new memoir about hunger in America will soon be available! I’ll keep you in the loop.
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Thurman Greco
Do you ever…? 10 questions to ask hungry friends, relatives, neighbors.
Do you ever run out of $$$ to buy the food to make a meal?
Do you ever eat less food than you need because you ran out of $$$ to buy the food?
Do you ever eat less food than you need because you can’t get the food?
Do you ever skip meals because you don’t have $$$ for food?
Do you ever skip meals because you can’t get the food?
Do you ever do without fresh/frozen fruits and vegetables because you don’t have $$$ to purchase these products?
Do you ever go to bed hungry?
Do you ever skip meals so that your children will have enough to eat?
Do your children ever eat less than they need because you don’t have enough to eat?
Do your children ever go to bed hungry?
Each week at the pantry, people line up to file through the tiny room in the shed. Most of them come weekly…as they should. That’s how they get the most food for the time invested. They get a 3-day supply of food which must last a week.
They hold their heads high, chat with neighbors in the line, put on the best face possible. I see them week after week, trying to get food they need at the pantry. I cannot help but have questions. I need to shift the focus from general to specific, nothing more. To me, each person is individual. Each one has unique needs.
As an agency of the Food Bank of Northeastern New York and the Hudson Valley, the volunteers of the Reservoir Food Pantry are trained to feed the hungry a 3-day supply of food to include fresh fruits and vegetables, proteins, whole wheat breads, dairy products. We are extremely proud of the quality of food which we serve to our shoppers.
This 3-day-supply of food includes food for three meals on each of the three days. Each meal needs to offer 3 of the 5 food groups.
We get this food from the Food Bank. Grocers, food manufacturers, farmers generously donate it. For the most part, it’s diverted from the landfill.
In spite of the landfill diversion, the quality of this food is excellent. Much of it, especially the fresh fruits and vegetables, is organic. It is food that all of us who volunteer at the Reservoir Food Pantry are proud to offer.
We serve this food to:
Seniors whose social security is not enough to buy the food they need to eat.
Families whose children need enough to eat so they can learn at school.
Seriously ill people whose income is focused on paying medical bills with no $$$ left for food.
Homeless people with no kitchens.
People living in food deserts who lack transportation to get to a first line grocery store/super market.
When I see these people each week, I cannot help but see that the numbers grow weekly. I am always confronted with one final question:
Why, in our United States of America in the 21st century, are over 49,000,000 people not getting enough to eat?
http://www.reservoirfoodpantry.org
http://www.FoodBankofHudsonValley.org
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Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
