Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, November 16, 1993                   TAG: 9311160034
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

ELDERLY WORRY ABOUT STARVING, NEW SURVEY FINDS

The Urban Institute survey on hunger among the elderly found that 8 percent of older Americans answered "yes" to at least one of the following questions:

Have there been days when you have no food in the house and no money or food stamps to buy food?

Have you had to choose between buying food and buying medications?

Have you had to choose between buying food and paying rent or utility bills?

Have you skipped meals because you had no food in the house and no money or food stamps to buy food?

The percentage doubled when a fifth question was added, whether they had taken actions such as serving smaller meals, borrowing money or using food stamps when food was scarce.

"I have just been doing without medical care and medications; no doctor, drugs too high," said a San Francisco woman who has had to choose between eating and buying medicine.

Race, income and health conditions all influence the level of "food insecurity," which means adequate diets are either unavailable, unaffordable or inaccessible, the institute said. Urban or rural location was not a factor.

Hispanics were the most likely to suffer from hunger, followed by blacks and other races. Whites were the least likely.

In addition, serious health problems and isolation add to food insecurity, the institute said.

Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, chairman of the Congressional Hunger Caucus, called hunger among the elderly "one of America's saddest secrets."

"The results of the study leave me perplexed and angry. With all the feeding programs we seem to have for seniors - food stamps, congregate meals, meals on wheels and more - why is it that so many are going hungry?"

Results were based on a 1992 national mail survey and local surveys conducted in 16 communities with high concentrations of low-income elderly and were presented to the Congressional Hunger and Older Americans Caucuses.

While hunger is more prevalent among elderly with incomes below the poverty level - $6,729 for those 65 years and older - it does not drop off substantially until incomes rise to at least 150 percent of poverty.

Only 12.9 percent of all seniors are "officially" poor, but another 14.7 percent have incomes between 100 and 150 percent of poverty.

Federal food assistance programs, such as food stamps, group meals and home-delivered meals, do not reach at least two-thirds of needy senior citizens, said Martha Burt, survey director.

Seniors may not qualify for food stamps or home-delivered meals and they may not know about, feel comfortable going to or be able to get to group meal programs, Burt said.

According to the survey, almost nine out of 10 low-income elderly persons do not receive food stamps.

Nine of out of 10 seniors with a functional limitation who have gone without food in the past six months do not get home-delivered meals. Two out of three seniors who suffer from food insecurity do not use the group meals program.