Older Americans find it difficult to eat enough, and that was before COVID-19

According to 2019, more than one in six people aged 50 to 64 suffered from "food insecurity". new research from the University of MichiganThis means that they did not have constant access to affordable and healthy food, and sometimes they did not eat as much as they needed due to a lack of money. . This figure fell to 10%, again an alarming level, or those aged 65 to 80.

He suggests that many Americans face a sharp cut in the budget in the late Middle Ages, after being cut or cut, but before retiring to Social Security and Medicare.

And overall, the rates are much worse for those who earn less, for people of color and for those with lower formal education levels, according to surveys. For example, over the entire age group 50 to 80, one in three people with an income of less than $ 30,000 a year had no food security in the year last.

Those who graduated from college were only a third as likely to be food insecure as those whose formal studies ended in high school.

The staggering rate of skipping food in middle-aged people poses a worrying problem for the economy. Discrimination based on working age is illegal, but it happens again and again. Many workers are laid off in their early 50s and struggle to find new jobs. However, they somehow have to fight until 62 before they are eligible for social security, even if they are desperate enough to take it early. And they have to wait 65 years to be eligible for Medicare.

Meanwhile, people over 65 who need it face a different set of problems, including not only poverty but also isolation and reduced mobility. An elderly person living alone is more likely to miss their food and it may be more difficult to get to the store.

The federal government argues that poverty rates for people over 65 have collapsed in the past 50 years, thanks to the sharp increase in national income and the increase in government programs. It is estimated that 9.2% of the elderly live under their official poverty line.

However, this level of poverty is low: only $ 12,000 a year for a single person, $ 30 a day and $ 15,000 a year for a retired couple, he says. A somewhat less extreme definition of poverty, designed to reflect a broader set of expenditures, places the rate among people over the age of 65. about 14%.

On the most positive front, Tufts University has recommended Food pyramid for the elderly It consists largely of inexpensive food, lentils, canned tuna and eggs with pasta, rice, oats, bananas and raisins. Fruits and vegetables tend to cost more, but a pound of fresh frozen organic vegetables is always only $ 2. This suggests that more and better nutritional information may also help those who need it.