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The silent generation.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth report in an ongoing series on hunger in Oregon. The state has the highest hunger rate in the country, according to federal surveys.

Bobbie Garner may be losing her sight to the slow ravages of macular degeneration, but the 71-year-old retired nurse still has an eye for detail.

She sees these scenes play out in the grocery store: A senior citizen stands before a shelf, picks something up - say a quality cut of meat - then smiles a little sadly and puts it back. Or a senior walks all the aisles of the store, but in the end buys only two or three things.

"They don't have enough money," Garner said. "They can't afford more."

Garner herself makes tough food choices every week. She didn't retire to an easier life. In her modest, tidy Creswell home, she's raising two teen-age grandchildren on a Social Security income alone.

She can't remember when she last took the kids out for dinner. The family rarely eats meat, relying instead on pasta, rice and beans as meal mainstays. When she can, she buys hamburger and hot dogs.

Seniors register as only a blip on national and state hunger surveys, but the low numbers may have more to do with the challenges seniors face getting food than with lack of need, say those who work most closely with the elderly.

Only about 1.5 percent of households experiencing hunger include senior citizens, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture survey that ranked Oregon as the nation's hungriest state. And a 2002 state survey of emergency food box recipients showed only 4.8 percent of them were age 65 or older.

But last fall, a survey of...

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