GAS PRICES THREATEN MEALS ON WHEELS PROGRAMS

Some elders may lose their daily meals

By P.J. Dickerscheid THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHARLESTON, W.Va.— Ruth M. Jones doesn’t know what she’d do without hot meals delivered daily to her home. The 81-year-old Charleston widow can’t walk or drive since a car wreck nine years ago left her stricken by arthritis.

“A lot of times I can’t even get into the kitchen,” said Jones, who relies on her Social Security check to cover the soaring costs of food and utilities.

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.

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. “All of that is generating a lot of anxiety,” said Bob Anderson, associate director of the Metropolitan Area Agency on Aging in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

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