Recession sends older Americans to food pantries

[Liberal_in_LA]

In this Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009 photo, Ronald Shewchuk gets a plate for himself and his wife, Helen, at the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen in Ithaca, N.Y. The Shewchuks have been eating many of their meals at the soup kitchen since losing most of their retirement savings during the economic downturn. Serving Shewchuk is volunteer Jennifer Mason. (AP Photo/Kevin Rivoli)


Nov 28, 2:30 AM EST

Recession sends older Americans to food pantries

By VALERIE BAUMAN

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Older Americans who were raised on stories of the Great Depression and acquired lifelong habits of thrift now find themselves crowding soup kitchens and food pantries in greater numbers for the first time after seeing retirement funds, second jobs and nest eggs wiped out by recession.

"What we see in line is lots of gray hair, lots of walkers," said Marti Forman, CEO of The Cooperative Feeding Program in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The help is crucial for many fixed-income seniors, who can't always keep up with rising food prices.

"It's a lifeline. It just means that you can function," said Ronald Shewchuk of Ithaca, N.Y. "Otherwise we would have to sell our house. I don't know what we would do. Go to an old age home."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HUNGRY_SENIORS?SITE=KGO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. This country should be ashamed of itself for allowing decades of Repukes to do this to our elderly

It's monstrous.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. An elderly couple I know from church will be selling their home in January

It's gone, all gone, as the result of a number of circumstances that played out over the last year, so that now their only option is to sell the house that they spent most of their married lives in.

The year after my mom died, they had me over for Thanksgiving dinner at that house. When they told me the news, it broke my heart. This is one of too many similar stories in post-Bush America.

[1]

3. all of us here are ok with that. as long as they don't shop at walmart. then we would hate them...

we would have to.

it's what we do here...