Senior Poverty: Food Insecurity Rising Among Older Americans

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/senior-poverty-hunger_n_1834583.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

August 29, 2012
Laura Rowley

Charlotte Wahlstrom, 74, lives in a trailer in a small town in Michigan. She volunteers at the library, goes to the senior center for free yoga classes and brings her mutt Otis to the local dog park where she chats with friends. And after a lifetime of working and saving, she relies on $140 in food stamps to get by.

This wasn’t part of her retirement plan. After her divorce in 1976, Wahlstrom continued to work as an administrative assistant and went back for her college degree, later landing a solid job at a university. Growing up on a small farm in Minnesota, Wahlstrom learned to stretch a dollar, and by her late 50s she had accumulated roughly six figures in her retirement account. Unfortunately, it was mostly invested in stock mutual funds.

“When the banks went under and the stock market went way down … I lost [most] of it,” she said.

Wahlstrom is part of a group experts call "the hidden hungry.” In 2010, 8.3 million Americans over 60 faced the threat of hunger -- up 78 percent from a decade earlier, according to a 2012 report. The proportion of the seniors affected has grown to one in seven in 2010 from one in nine in 2005 -- even as the hunger risk for the population as a whole declined slightly, the report found.

The rise in food insecurity is being seen primarily among Americans earning less than $30,000 –- or one to two times the poverty level –- as well as people between the ages of 60 and 69, said Craig Gundersen of the University of Illinois, who co-authored the report with James Ziliak of the University of Kentucky.

“We were surprised that young seniors were more likely to be food insecure than older seniors,” said Gundersen, who pointed to layoffs during the recession and reduced salaries for those who do find work as the primary culprits. “Most of them can’t rely on Social Security income, and can’t receive Medicare until they are 65.”

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The biggest jump in poverty rates was among people 50 to 64 in the period studied, but poverty levels are highest for people 85 and older, Banerjee noted, citing medical expenses as the most significant factor. “In all the other categories –- housing, entertainment, food, clothing –- spending goes down with age," he said. "But medical expenses are higher, and for these people, it takes about one-fifth of their budget.”

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The causality works both ways: Being poor can make you sick, and being sick can make you poor.

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One in five women over 65 lived in poverty in 2009.

Wahlstrom is one of those women. Her monthly income includes $900 a month in Social Security, $200 from a small annuity and $140 in food stamps. “It’s cutting it close, but it’s still enough,” she said.

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funding for emergency food assistance programs has declined in recent years