A 12-page report released Tuesday by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) found that about 5 million senior citizens are threatened by hunger in the United States.
“It is estimated that 5 million seniors face the threat of hunger, 3 million seniors are at risk of hunger, and 1 million seniors go hungry because they cannot afford to buy food,” Sanders said Tuesday during a Senate hearing, summing up the findings.
According to the report, the average cost of a meal brought to a senior’s home is just over $5. By contrast, the average cost of spending a day in the hospital is more than $1,850, while the average yearly cost of care at a nursing home is over $77,700.
The tone of the Sanders hearing — called the “Senior Hunger and the Older Americans Act” and held by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health & Aging, which Sanders chairs — provided a stark contrast to the political debate on Capitol Hill about cutting programs for the elderly like Social Security and Medicare.
