More than 275 hampers have been put together by the Prince George Council of Seniors and its bevy of tireless volunteers for seniors in need in the community.
Last year, there was 218 hampers provided and Lola Dawn Fennell, general manager at the council, thought that was a lot.
This year's applications seem to indicate that many seniors are having to go into debt to regularly make ends meet and are just not able to come up with the funds to add any kind of special occasion meal to the already over-extended budget.
Out of the more than 275 applicants, there are 111 single women, 82 single men, 25 couples with no children or grandchildren, four couples with adult children or grandchildren living with them, 17 women with adult children or grandchildren living with them, and one man with an adult child living with him. There were were 58 who identified as diabetics, a dozen with serious food allergies, six renal or heart patients, five lactose intolerant and three with stomach or bowel conditions that required specific dietary needs. (Some numbers overlap like a diabetic who is a single man, or a woman with grandchildren who has severe food allergies.)
"And we have six people who listed their pets - including 'their best friend, Kitty,' as family members," said Fennell, who was quite touched by that sentiment. "The two trends that we've noticed that are different this year from previous years is the amount of household debt - we're seeing more monthly bills like maxed out credit cards and debts owed to short-term cash loan establishments. We've seen more of that than we've ever seen. We are also seeing more people renting individual rooms in homes rather than renting apartments or houses."
These are indicators that some seniors are having a harder time living month to month, Fennell added.
"Rent is high, groceries are high, debt is high and people can't make things stretch far enough," said Fennell. "And that's sad."
And those accessing the seniors hampers are younger than in previous years, too.
"Those between 55 to 60 years old are applying in higher numbers than ever," said Fennell. "When we started this 10 years ago average age of recipients was mid 70s to early 80s and now we're seeing younger seniors who are struggling."
The Prince George Council of Seniors only provides hampers as a one-time event and had to have strict deadlines in place for food donations because they only rely on volunteers to do the grunt work associated with lugging canned foods through their office and into the basement storage below.
Most of the staff and volunteers in the council's office are not physically able to carry the heavy bags of groceries up and down the stairs and were having to turn away late food donations and redirect generous donors to other non-profits who have staff able to accept food donations all year round.
"I feel so bad that we had to turn people away with their donations but without volunteers to help carry it down, put the food into hampers and haul it all back up the stairs and deliver it, we just couldn't accept any more," said Fennell. "Thank you from the bottom of my overwhelmed heart to every donor and every volunteer. We really appreciate the generosity of the Prince George community and are proud that we had so many willing to help with the entire project from start to finish."
