Hunger Among Seniors – Florida

Hunger risk grows for older Floridians, By Sonja Isger, August 9, 2012, Palm Beach Post: “Rena Drye once relished cooking a good stuffed pepper or cheesecake. But after multiple heart attacks and a big fall, the 91-year-old woman uses a wheelchair and must rely on home-delivered meals to fill her plate at least once a day. Drye, who lives in suburban West Palm Beach, is one of 1,800 seniors in our area who benefit from a federally funded meals program that began in 1965. But more than 560 other seniors across Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast are waiting for that help.  Statewide, the waiting list for home-delivered meals has more than doubled in the last nine years from 2,976 in 2003 to 7,854 last month, reflecting a national problem of hunger among the elderly. Those in charge of programs to deliver meals to seniors say they face many challenges, including a budget from the federal government that has failed to keep up with inflation, food and transportation costs that have increased the cost of each meal, and an elderly population that is booming in a time of economic hardship…”