Specialized Services for Law Firms

By Carl Bloice
Article first published by The Black Commentator and then by L.A. Progressive

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.”

“Those same costs are squeezing the estimated 20,000 senior nutrition programs across the country that serve Jones and millions of elderly and frail Americans” the AP story read. “While most needs are still being met, advocates from California to New York worry that seniors will go hungry. They blame a nearly 20 percent increase in fuel and food prices over the past year, flat or reduced government funding, and an ailing economy that yields fewer donations.”

Meanwhile, USA Today has run an extensive series on the problem of seniors struggling to remain alive and healthy under the crushing weight of the cost of the things we need and for which the elderly must pay a disproportionate share of our incomes on. One of them described a busy food bank in Southern California. “The free food amounts to a lifeline for these seniors, who have seen inflation wring much of the value out of their fixed incomes,” it read. “For these retirees, the prices of essentials – notably, gas and food – have galloped beyond reach. Perhaps most of all, they’re straining under the weight of crushing medical costs.

To read the full article please follow this link.