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Food
pantries serving more seniors Susan
Jaffe, Plain Dealer Reporter More and more seniors trying to make ends meet on a fixed income are
going to food pantries. "I looked at the prices at Tops and had to walk out of
there," said Hank Stro, 83, a retired truck driver who went to the "Everything's gone up, and that's hurting old people," he
said. More people of all ages in Cuyahoga County are getting groceries from
food pantries, but the percentage of those 60 and older is growing faster
than any other age group, said Dana Irribarren, executive director of the
Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland, which runs 36 pantries. In 2000, 55,103, or 13 percent, of food pantry consumers were seniors,
and in 2002, there were 59,550, or 15 percent. To be eligible for the
monthly assistance, recipients must show proof of low income, residency, a
photo ID and the number of people in their household. Irribarren said some of the increase in seniors' use of the pantry may
be because older people are living longer. But more of them are feeling
the pinch as rising health care costs, prescription drugs, housing and
utility bills take more of their limited income, she said. "When you are on a fixed income, it's really something else,
trying to pay the doctor bills and utilities," said Rev. Howard
Mabins, 75, a retired pastor in Steve Bush, 88, who worked for 32 years as a machinist at Eaton Corp.,
was also at the "I'm very lucky because I don't use any medicine," he said.
"If I got sick, I don't know what I'd do." Food bank operators elsewhere in At the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest Ohio, serving Lorain,
Erie, Huron and Crawford counties, executive director Rich Mancini said
seniors now account for almost 25 percent of the people who went to
emergency food pantries. Their numbers have increased 5.5 percent during
the first eight months of 2003 compared to the same period last year. "That's frightening," said Mancini, in Mancini said a lot of the families who would care for the seniors have
left to find jobs elsewhere because of the poor economy. If the calls coming in to Director Stephen Wertheim has seen an increase in requests for food
assistance from seniors 60 and older. That's especially remarkable, he
said, because the number of requests from younger people hasn't changed. In the first nine months of this year, seniors asking about food
pantries increased 10 percent over the same period last year. There was a
28 percent jump in seniors' request for information about receiving food
stamps. And seniors asking for health care assistance rose 19 percent. Bernice Harel, director of the Tri-City Consortium on Aging, has also
noticed a steady increase in the numbers of seniors who have an
inexpensive lunch at one of the agencies' centers in "People try very hard not to air their troubles and keep a
positive outlook, but there is a lot of concern about the cost of basic
needs," she said, especially prescription drugs. Typically, seniors are the last group to come to pantries, said Lisa
Hamler-Podolski, executive director of the Ohio Association of Second
Harvest Food Banks, which includes the 12 food banks in the state
supplying 3,000 charities that run pantries. "You know the economy is really bad when you start to see seniors,
because they believe there are others who are needier than them,
especially children," said Hamler-Podolski, who has worked in the
field 15 years. "It's really hard to watch - these are the people that built this
country," she said.
Copyright © 2002 Global
Action on Aging |
