COLUMBIA (WACH) -- Harvest Hope food bank is one of the many non-profit organizations across the Midlands lending a hand to those in need especially senior citizens.
“There should not be the number of senior citizens coming to our pantry and into the programs we run. It really doesn't make any sense, says Chris Daly, Harvest Hope Chief Operating Officer.
Harvest Hope prides itself on establishing a senior feeding program that includes Totes of Love and CSFP known as the Commodity Supplemental Feeding Program.
Daly says over the past eight years the distribution center has seen a big increase in the number of seniors needing food.
That increase supports the findings of the AARP study released Wednesday.
The study goes on to say that since 2001 there was a 79 percent increase in seniors nationwide who have been at risk of hunger.
Of the millions at risk ten percent were South Carolinians.
“There are alot of the seniors who are on fixed incomes with all their medical bills all the other issues electric bills things that they have to pay for, sometimes food is the last thing they have money to spare for, says Joann Kline, Ahepa Housing.
Kline says out of the 62 residents in the housing complex where she works 30 of them get food from the senior feeding program at Harvest Hope.
Daly says Harvest Hope is doing all that it can to help especially since the unstable economy has affected many pockets.
“35,000 seniors were fed for the year 2011, which is a 15,000 increase over the year. Folks who have worked there entire lives putting into retirement and who built the country we all enjoy, the fact that they need hunger assistance its unacceptable, says Daly.
Do you think enough is being done to help those affected by this study?
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