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Guest Opinion | Akila Gibbs: Food Insecurity an Increasing Reality for Older Adults

Published on Monday, June 14, 2021 | 5:38 am
 

Dorothy is an 87-year-old woman who lives alone in a small Pasadena apartment and experiences consistent food insecurity – no reliable access to adequate nutrition because of financial circumstances.

So she comes to the Pasadena Senior Center the first Friday of every month for a 30-day allotment of groceries provided in collaboration with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, including canned and boxed food and other non-perishable staples. She is one of about 500 people who come to the center for the Food Distribution Program.

“My husband passed away in 2006 and didn’t leave me with any life insurance benefits. I don’t have any living family members left, and most of my friends have passed away,” this woman nicknamed Dottie said recently. “If not for the added assistance of the Senior Center I’m quite certain I would be homeless, and that possibility scares the Dickens out of me.”

Several factors put Dottie and many other older adults at a disadvantage, such as limited Social Security benefits plus rising costs for prescription drugs and housing. Add the fact that Medicare does not help cover the high costs Dottie would have to pay to reside in an assisted living facility – an average of $4,500 monthly in Los Angeles County – where she could get the help she needs for her degenerative joint issues, and we have the makings of a perfect storm.

In Pasadena, 16.3 percent of adults 65 and older live below the federal poverty level compared to 13.4 percent in Los Angeles County and 10.2 percent in California, so the Pasadena Senior Center’s monthly Food Distribution Program is more important than ever.

Most months, the center adds a whole uncooked chicken from San Gabriel-based Del Mar Meats Inc. to each box of food to provide much-needed lean meat that is essential to healthy nutrition for older adults. In May, Paul and Lee Celano, owners of the wholesale meat company, donated the chickens.

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we have had a very successful year,” said Paul Celano. “We are so blessed, so we wanted to make this in-kind donation. We are family-owned and community-oriented, so we felt it was the right thing to do.”

In addition to the Food Distribution Program, the center delivers 11,000 boxes of food every month and hot meals weekly to the homes of income-qualified older adults.

What can you do to help? Be a good neighbor and knock on the door of an older adult. Start a friendly conversation to learn more about someone’s situation. And donate at www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org to ensure that food insecurity does not become more prevalent than it already is. Learn more by visiting the website and clicking on Food Distribution Programs.

Akila Gibbs is the executive director of the Pasadena Senior Center.

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