Starting today, 100 low-income Sacramento Senior Citizens will receive a free daily breakfast from the River City Food Bank as part of a trial program.
Eileen Thomas is the food bank's executive director. She says a survey conducted by the food bank showed physical and emotional benefits for seniors who eat in the morning.
"In our research, as we looked at seniors and the importance of food in the morning, we found they had fewer falls, they felt better, they could get up and get going better in the morning if they just had a little bit of good nutrition in the morning."
Sandra Richards is 66 and lives in South Sacramento. Last week, she was picking up groceries at the food bank. She says it's hard to function without a good breakfast to start the day.
"You seem to have trouble. You're tired and worn down and irritable and all kinds of things. And I can't really make it. I have to have breakfast or I actually get ill. So I think it's a good thing because I take medication, you have to have food."
River City Food Bank recently conducted a survey of seniors and found a majority had to choose between buying food and paying bills.
Dale Parrel is 60 and lives in the Florin Road area. He says -without help- his income isn't enough to feed his family for a month.
"I would like to have something like that delivered to my house. If there was any lunch or dinner, that would be nice too."
After six months, Sutter Medical will test senior's physical and emotional health and compare the results to data collected today.
The program is sponsored by Sutter, Teichert, Safeway and Costco.
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