Why are Senior Citizens forced to eat Cat Food or Dog Food?

 Why are Senior Citizens forced to eat Cat Food or Dog Food?

Many years ago, while grocery shopping, I kept seeing senior citizens purchasing boxes of Fancy Feast Cat food or slabs of Alpo dog food and smiled that they had a fur baby to keep them company as a companion. Little did I know at that point that they didn’t have any animal at home, instead they were purchasing those cans of animal food to feed themselves along with the boxes of crackers in their shopping cart. So why would a senior citizen resort to eating dog or cat food instead of more nutritional food for humans? It’s because their social security check doesn’t cover their monthly expenses to cover food. So, they sign up for SNAP which is food stamps, but because their receiving social security funds each month, food stamps only cover $35.00 to help feed them each month. Family isn’t helping them survive each month, in fact, family members ignore their pleas for help. Now what is wrong with this picture folks? Is it a social issue or a family issue that someone is doomed to each cat food or dog food to survive? Guess what when a person doesn’t get the proper nutritional food to survive, they begin to have health issues which raises the cost of medical care each month through Medicare and guess what, the make matters worse, Medicare supplemental health insurance comes out of the persons social security check each month, which lowers their ability to buy real food. Is this a social issue or a government issue? Or is it a family issue that needs to be addressed?

Now if we look at this from another angle, if that senior citizen had children at home, say like grand kids to care for, their SNAP payment could be as high as $1500 per month in food stamps, but yet the person who has no kids living with them only gets $35.00 per month to cover their food expenses. Now mind you their food stamp rations do not cover toilet paper, cleaning supplies or any other item that is not edible, therefore, those funds come out of their social security check each month and with the rising cost of toilet paper and other household goods they can’t afford those items either. Is it just me or is there something wrong with the balance of equality to care for our senior citizens? I find it horrendous that a person is degraded to finding themselves in life being forced to eat dog food or cat food in order to sustain themselves in such a way to continue living. There is a reason why we have such high suicide rates among senior citizens, yet no one seems to care or even a willingness to help them each month, not even their family members. Think about this situation while you’re shopping for those high-tech expensive gifts this holiday season. It would be nice if you purchased a gift card and gave it a senior citizen in your area to help them buy real food and not animal food to survive.