It Makes You Want to Cry: Economy Hits Seniors Hard

He caught me by the elevator. “Do you know how much peanut butter costs at Safeway now as compared to two months ago?” John asked. I didn’t but I had been aware of the recent cost of berries, which were rising out of sight. Joe wanted to know if I had, as requested, written to one of our U.S. senators about the problem. He told me that across the bay in Oakland, a senior meals program had been eliminated entirely as of this month. What brought this exchange on was a July 1 Associated Press article on the effects of rising food and fuel prices and budgetary cutbacks on older people. John and I belong to the same local senior activist group and I had emailed the story to members of the board. That’s the story quoting a woman on Social Security and her difficulty meeting the rising cost of food and utilities who said, “A lot of times I can’t even get into the kitchen.”