Seniors balk at ban on free doughnuts - Update

MSNBC ^ | Sept 24, 2007 | DancesWithCats

[DancesWithCats]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20942178/

County officials concerned donated pastries will contribute to health ills

Updated: 11:41 a.m. MT Sept 23, 2007

MAHOPAC, N.Y. - It was just another morning at the senior center: Women were sewing, men were playing pool — and seven demonstrators, average age 76, were picketing outside, demanding doughnuts.

They wore sandwich boards proclaiming, "Give Us Our Just Desserts" and "They're Carbs, Not Contraband."

At issue is a decision to refuse free doughnuts, pies and breads that were being donated to senior centers around Putnam County, north of New York City. Officials were concerned that the county was setting a bad nutritional precedent by providing mounds of doughnuts and other sweets to seniors.

The picketers said they were objecting not to a lack of sweets but that they weren't consulted about the ban.

"Lack of respect is what it's all about," said Joe Hajkowski, 75, a former labor union official who organized the demonstration. He said officials had implied that seniors were gorging themselves on jelly doughnuts and were too senile to make the choice for themselves.

C. Michael Sibilia said, "I'm 86, not 8."

Inside, some seniors said they missed the doughnuts but others said they were glad to see them go.

"It was disgusting the way people went after them," said 80-year-old Rita Jorgensen. "I think the senior center did them a favor by taking it away."

Stan Tuttle, coordinator of nutritional services for the county's Office for the Aging, said the program had gotten out of control. As many as 16 cases of breads, cakes and pastries were delivered, by various means, to the William Koehler Memorial Senior Center each day. Some were moldy and some had been stored overnight in the trunks of volunteers' cars, he said.

[DancesWithCats]

Tough balance Caregivers there and elsewhere say the doughnut debate illustrates the difficulty of balancing nutrition and choice when providing meals to the elderly.

"Senior citizens can walk down to the store and buy doughnuts. Nobody's stopping them," said Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington.

But he notes that older people have high rates of heart disease and high blood pressure and says senior citizen centers, nursing homes and assisted-living centers should not be worsening the health problems of seniors.

At the North East Bronx Senior Citizen Center, lunch is served five times a week (suggested contribution $1.50).

"We don't tell them what to do, we don't force them to eat what's good for them. But we certainly don't give them anything that's bad for them," said center director Silvia Ponce.

The church-basement senior center, one of 325 under the New York City Department for the Aging, has a mostly Italian-American clientele, a Naples-born cook and a menu that includes eggplant parmigiana, linguini with clams and manicotti.

"We try to give them what they like," said the cook, Stella Bruno.

The lunches have to supply one-third of the federal minimum daily requirements in such categories as calories, protein, vitamin C and vitamin A, said Chris Miller, spokesman for the department.

Wearing protest signs, from left, Geoff Lock, Margaret Colesanti and Ann Donegan stage a pro-doughnut demonstration at the Koehler Senior Center in Mahopac, N.Y., on Sept. 13, 2007. At issue is a decision to refuse free doughnuts, pies and breads that were being donated to senior centers around Putnam County.

[Red in Blue PA]

Let them have their friggin’ free doughnuts. Ban them so they can live to 100.5 instead of 100?

Insane!

[JLS]

Liberals!!!!!

[Holicheese]

I wish one of them had a sign that said,” GIMME GIMME GIMME!”

[PBRSTREETGANG]

No donuts for seniors...no cupcakes in schools...nannyism marches on.

[TexGuy]

Officials were concerned ...

It's a "We-know-what's-best-for-you" story ...

[ccmay]

Let them have their friggin’ free doughnuts. Ban them so they can live to 100.5 instead of 100?

That's what gets me too. If you look at the effects that various lifestyle modifications have on lifespan, the benefits are often surprisingly modest.

Obese people live only four to six months less than monastic Pritikin-dieting food Nazis. Even lifelong smokers have only about a year and a half less life expectancy than non-smokers. And by the age of eighty or so, the damage has been done, and enjoying a donut or a cigar or a glass of wine every day is not going to affect your remaining lifespan in any meaningful way.

Leave the old codgers in peace, I say, and let them choose for themselves whether or not to have a donut.

[shekkian]

It’s like a scene from the French Revolution, with the peasants waving canes and walkers, yelling in their wheezy voices, “Give us our cake!!!”

[DancesWithCats]

... and if others don’t want to eat the doughnuts, that’s up to them to leave ‘em on the plate, but taking them away from the seniors who want them? It’s so wrong. It doesn’t even cost the center anything! They’ve made a mountain out of a molehill for what? So they can shove their diet ideas down the throats of adults!? It is insane.

[ontap]

I often tell my wife when I hit eighty I’m going to start smoking and eating any damn thing I want. Now I suppose I’ll have to sneak it into the senior citizens center. What a crock, these old folks have raised there kids and still the liberals won’t leave them in peace. If I were retired and living near there i would go pick up the damn donuts and park across the street and pass them out.

[DancesWithCats]

LOL GREAT idea!! Hope somebody else thinks like that and goes and delivers doughnuts to them! My mom’s 80 and she’s active and she’s still going strong ... she does watch her weight (loves The Celebrity Fit Club) but boy howdy, she does enjoy her Chinese food several times a month and she loves Almond Roca and bear claws and ... well, she doesn’t deny herself, that’s for sure! And at her age, she shouldn’t! She’s worked hard all her life and though she doesn’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water, she certainly enjoys her favorite foods with gusto and has earned the right to do so at HER discretion!

[ontap]

My Dads 90. Real slim, eats anything he wants doesn’t gain a pound. I would say he knows better about his health than some nosey bureaucrat. I can only hope when this B*tch gets old she has someone just like her telling her to shut up and eat her oatmeal.

[DancesWithCats]

... and her saying, ‘please sir? Can I have some more?’

[A knight without armor]

Right, and also its not that simple in the first place. There are lots of other forces. For instance a year ago this woman in the neighborhood was hit and killed while out running in the predawn darkness. Nobody was charged as it was deemed an accident. The paper said she was very much a health conscious person who very much promoted fitness. It said she had a husband and a baby girl and a toddler girl. One wonders if perhaps she had been home that morning eating bacon and eggs and smoking a cigarette would she have lived to see her daughters grow up and her husband have his partner. One never knows.

[A knight without armor]

“”It was disgusting the way people went after them,” said 80-year-old Rita Jorgensen. “I think the senior center did them a favor by taking it away.””

She is so sweet. I bet everybody enjoys her company.

[DancesWithCats]

Ms. Rita Jorgensen wins Bitter Pill of the Month award. (so don’t gawk Rita. Ever think of that!? go off in the corner and chew on yer raw carrot)

[Lawgvr1955]

You gotta live while you are alive. Give them a darn donut.

[patton]

Ping. This one is made for the nanny state list.

[DancesWithCats]

LOL LOL Well said. Succinct. To the point. Give ‘em their darn donut. LOL

[MaxMax]

She is so sweet. I bet everybody enjoys her company.

Nurse Ratched? A hit at every party no doubt.