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After working all year to help feed and clothe some of the borough's neediest people, the Rev. Mary Ellen Rogers of Ocean Hill-Brownsville is taking a much-needed vacation.

"I'm not going anywhere," said Rogers.

For the past six years, she has run a soup kitchen and food pantry in the Marcus Garvey Village Community Center on Chester St.

"I'm just going to close everything down for a month, stay home, rest and redecorate my apartment."

Rogers said she also wants to think about what more can be done to help the growing number of seniors she sees coming in for help. She is alarmed at how their numbers are rising.

"There are a lot of new faces — many of them over 55. They come in once a month, sometimes more often if it's a real emergency," Rogers said.
Rogers and other advocates for senior citizens say the elderly are facing increasing financial pressures from the rising costs of prescription medicines, among other things.

The soup kitchen and pantry Rogers runs are sponsored by her church, the Jarena Lee Community African Methodist Episcopal Church.
"We try to treat the seniors with great respect. If you're hungry, we don't want to give you a hard time."

Rogers works with a small core of volunteers and does not keep records to show exactly how many more people were coming for help this year as compared to last. But she said it was clear the country's economic boom missed the people she serves.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger found during its 1999 annual survey of emergency food programs that 50% of the soup kitchens and pantries in Brooklyn reported increases in hunger among the borough's elderly.

Figures from this year's survey are not yet available. However, people such as Rogers, who work directly with seniors, say higher numbers this year are likely.

Debbe Santiago, founder of Salt & Sea Mission on Coney Island, said, "The seniors reach their golden years in this, the land of plenty, America, so they can break prescriptions in half to have enough money for medicine and food.
"More and more, I'm seeing them digging in the garbage for bottles so they can get a little money to buy a bit more food." 

Edna Souels of Crown Heights Senior Services said, "Our population for breakfast and lunch has increased dramatically. Some of the seniors say they can't make a contribution for their meals because of their medical costs. They're complaining about paying so much for medication."

According a study released last month by Families USA, nationwide, annual spending per elderly person for prescription drugs increased 116% in eight years — from $559 in 1992 to $1,205 in 2000.

"Medications are outrageously expensive," said Jill Becker, director of the Ridgewood-Buswick Senior Center.

Seniors who qualify for Medicaid, Medicare or other health plans say they can avoid paying full price for prescription drugs — and they are glad about that.

But others are feeling the pinch.

"My medicines used to be free when I worked in a hospital," said Antoniette Millsapp of Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Because she retired in her early 60s, she is not yet eligible for Medicare. Millsapp said this means she must shop very carefully for her blood pressure medication.

"I go from pharmacy to pharmacy. They're never the same," she said. "One prescription could cost anywhere from $80 to $125 a month, depending on where you buy it."

Under the insurance plan she has, Millsapp said, she was expecting some relief as she reached the limit on what she had to pay out-of-pocket.
"But if that deductible goes higher," she said, "I'm in trouble."
Higher drug costs are just the beginning of seniors' troubles.

Becker explained, "There's not a lot of affordable senior housing. Electric bills have gone up. So has food. If you're on a fixed income, whether you're a senior or disabled, you only have so much. You may have to choose between eating or getting medicine or having a roof over your head."

Seniors who turn to Rogers' soup kitchen and pantry have similar problems.
Willie Smallwood, 62, of Brownsville said, "Everything's gone up - the rent, food, even aspirin."

As of 1998, Brooklyn had an estimated 280,000 seniors, of a total population of 2.4 million, according to the Department of City Planning. The majority of seniors receive Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare, but they say they could use a lot more help.

"It's unbelievable that seniors should have to pay so much just to live and be healthy," said Jeanne E. . Robinson, vice chairperson of the Decatur-Stuyvesant Senior Citizen Center.

Robinson recently discovered she has Type II diabetes. She said her food bills have gone up since because she must be more selective about her diet.
"It puts you in a stress mode to pay so much," said Robinson. "It doesn't help your health. And when you compare the money people spend in Canada for the same prescriptions we buy here, it's unfair. We're paying more."

Senior and those who work with them gave numerous suggestions on what can be done, offering ideas ranging from personal to political.

Millsapp said she was going to try reducing her blood pressure by changing her diet and using herbal remedies.
"They don't cost as much," she said.

Rogers said more religious institutions should step forward to help. 
"Churches are filled with seniors," she said. "More churches need to be talking about this."

Robinson said with elections coming up, politicians should be put on notice about the problem.

"We do vote," she said. "We have given a lot to this country, and we don't deserve to be treated as we are being treated.

"In Washington, they're fighting over how to spend all the surplus money. They should ask us."