If you are reading this while eating your breakfast, here is a hard fact to swallow: 6 million seniors in America face the threat of hunger. That is one in nine.
Yes, in the richest nation on earth many seniors are struggling to survive without proper nutrition. Now add to that the senior tsunami beginning to cast its long shadow across all our communities.
It is a dramatically rising tide of senior citizens, and most Americans are completely unaware that it is upon us. That includes many of our leaders in Washington.
Unless we begin to act decisively and aggressively, senior hunger in America will only worsen, and we will pay in lives as well as dollars.
Just take a look at your neighbors, and you will see the face of senior hunger in America. It is your fifth-grade teacher, retired firefighters and the clerk you used to see at the local grocery store. Now they are too old and frail to leave their homes, and their numbers are growing.
The elderly accounted for almost 40 million members of our population in 2009, and the government predicts that the number will climb to more than 72 million by 2030. Ten thousand baby boomers turn 65 years old every single day in America.
President Barack Obama recently released his fiscal 2012 budget proposal. Instead of asking for increased funding of senior nutrition programs, his administration recommends a flat repeat of current levels — approximately $819 million.
If funding were keeping up with inflation and the growth in the elderly population, based on the funding levels of two decades ago (FY 1992) that number should now be approximately $1.7 billion.
This huge discrepancy highlights a significant and disturbing shift in national priorities. We are witnessing an eroding commitment to seniors who are desperately in need of life-sustaining necessities.
In metro Atlanta alone, eight Meals On Wheels programs serve approximately 1 million meals annually through 18 locations.
However, every week in Georgia, between 4,000 and 5,000 seniors are on waiting lists for Meals On Wheels — not knowing where their next meal will come from.
The majority of Meals On Wheels programs in America depend on federal dollars through the Older Americans Act as their core funding.
We, as a nation, are failing those who depend on us. Surely there is nothing more fundamental to life and health than food.
But every day, more and more seniors are going hungry. Today’s seniors are just as precious to us as those of 20 years ago. Our financial commitment to their nutritional health should reflect that.
The Meals On Wheels Association of America and our member programs throughout the United States know as well as anyone the economic difficulties that the country and the administration and Congress are facing.
Yet we cannot ignore the facts. As our nation’s financial commitment toward feeding seniors has decreased, hunger risks have skyrocketed. And this, in and of itself, represents an incalculable cost to the nation.
We can only hope that Congress will carefully consider the impact its decisions concerning senior nutrition programs have on America’s seniors in every community — and every Congressional district — in this great land. This is a difficult fiscal environment, and we know that challenges are great.
But we must remind policymakers and the nation as a whole that there are millions of others who need us and whom we are still failing to reach. Feeding hungry seniors who cannot provide meals for themselves is not a discretionary activity.
It is a moral imperative.
Our message is as simple as that.
Enid Borden is president and CEO of the Meals On Wheels Association of America.
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