Recession Sends Older Americans To Food Pantries

[lunatica]

Recession Sends Older Americans To Food Pantries

ALBANY, N.Y. — 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.

(snip)
The number of seniors living alone who seek help from food pantries in the U.S. increased 81 percent to 408,000 in 2008, compared to 225,000 in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Overall, 4.7 million households used American food pantries in 2008, compared to about 3.7 million in 2006.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/28/recession-sends-older-ame_n_372665.html

The US really is becoming a shit country. Our elderly deserve much better than this. They paid their dues, now they get thrown under the bus. It's heartbreaking.

[Lugnut]

1. The current SS COLA criteria does not accurately reflect true expenses.

With no COLA increase this year those food pantry numbers are sure to grow. Our SS supplemental plan premium alone is going up 32%. PPL rate caps come off in January and a 30% increase will be showing up on light bills. Rising food and fuel prices will make this a very tough year for seniors.

[DollyM]

2. my mother is 81 and still works full time

She also helps us pay the bills since we have been out of work for over a year. Luckily she is in good health and chooses to continue working but she is thinking ahead to when she will have a greatly reduced income so she is trying to save everything she can while she can still work. She also volunteers at the food pantry on her days off and talks about the increases in just the amount of people they are seeing as opposed to even a year ago. It's really frighenting.

[greennina]

3. And Repukes would call them leeches...

and say they should instead starve.