After 32 years of work and success, Ilona Biskup now faces a harsh reality in retirement: relying on a food bank in Miami. Her case is one of the 60% of Americans who will experience poverty at some point in their lives.
- The 62-year-old woman recounts that four months ago, she scheduled her first appointment at Feeding South Florida, the largest food bank in South Florida, which provides free food to 25% of the area’s residents who cannot afford their food needs.
- Thousands of seniors without enough money for retirement
- The expert says this combination has made the U.S. one of the industrialized countries with the highest poverty rates.
- The importance of the SNAP program
- The importance of food banks
- Large low-income families, veterans, single mothers and fathers, and people with disabilities are some of the groups seeking help at Feeding South Florida.
Ilona says she felt ashamed the first time she visited a food bank to get food, after more than three decades of being productive, paying taxes, contributing to her retirement, and buying a beachfront apartment with her savings. Yet now she wonders why she depends on assistance just to eat.
The 62-year-old woman recounts that four months ago, she scheduled her first appointment at Feeding South Florida, the largest food bank in South Florida, which provides free food to 25% of the area’s residents who cannot afford their food needs.
She admitted that walking through shelves filled with products she might not have bought before made her accept that she needed help.
“After being so successful, now I depend on free food,” she says from her Miami Beach apartment, where she enjoys a 180-degree view: the city to her right and the ocean to her left.
“I never thought that after working so hard, I would end up depending on the government,” she says, explaining that her disability pension only covers housing and utilities: $2,000 a month from Social Security. This amount places her above the U.S. poverty line, which this year is set at $15,650 annually, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
That’s why, even though she owns her home and her car, she can’t afford food and has no savings left, after undergoing two cancer treatments and a recent Parkinson’s diagnosis that forces her to dip into her retirement funds.
Thousands of seniors without enough money for retirement
Biskup is part of a large segment of the population facing financial hardship, highly vulnerable if they encounter any financial setback.
A study by sociologist Mark Rank found that nearly 60% of American adults will live at least one year below the poverty line, while 75% will experience poverty or a near-poverty situation.
“Basically, there are three paths to poverty in the U.S.: job loss, a health emergency, or family separation,” explains Rank, a professor at the School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
“It’s a structural problem that stems mainly from a very weak social safety net, which fails to prevent people from falling into poverty, and the creation of low-paying jobs without benefits.”
The expert says this combination has made the U.S. one of the industrialized countries with the highest poverty rates.
A Pew Research Center study published in May revealed that 27% of Americans said they had trouble paying for their own or their family’s medical care in the past year, and at least one in five had to turn to a food bank during that time.
Meanwhile, 68% of Black adults, 67% of Hispanics, and 44% of white adults admit they have no savings for an emergency.
Another study by the National Council on Aging (NCOA) and the LeadingAge LTSS Center at the University of Massachusetts found that low-income seniors die, on average, nine years earlier than those who maintain wealth.
“It’s alarming and unacceptable that in the U.S. in 2025, poverty robs seniors of nearly a decade of life,” said Ramsey Alwin, NCOA president. “In the U.S., we often view poverty through a lens of blame.
If you’re poor, people ask: Why didn’t you work harder? What did you do wrong?
He also notes that many resist helping those in need: “Well, (poverty) is your problem, not mine.” And he adds: “In a country as wealthy as the U.S., it’s a social and economic injustice. But that’s a different mindset than we have.”
The importance of the SNAP program
Biskup is one of the 42 million Americans who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s most important food assistance program, which on average provides $187 per month to beneficiaries, though the amount varies based on the applicant’s circumstances. Biskup, for example, receives $225 a month.
Now, the program requires recipients to work at least 30 hours a week, study, care for a child under six, or care for a person with a disability. It also supports those receiving treatment for alcoholism or drug addiction, or those with physical or mental limitations, like Biskup. In total, it benefits one in eight Americans.
Waiting for a new deposit on her SNAP card due to a 43-day government shutdown that halted fund distribution, Biskup visited Feeding South Florida’s pantry to stock up on 10 fresh and 10 packaged or canned items she could take home.
“I’m grateful for this help,” she says.
The importance of food banks
Paco Vélez, president of Feeding South Florida, says the SNAP suspension caused a surge in people scheduling appointments to get free products at the food bank. “Families are scared and don’t know how they’ll pay for not just food, but everything.”
On top of that, food prices rose 2.7% in the 12 months prior to September this year, with significant increases in products like coffee (18.9%), ground beef (12.9%), and bananas (6.9%).
This increase stems from global tariffs on imports and the crackdown on undocumented migrants working in agriculture, driving up food production costs, explained David Ortega, a food economics expert.
Large low-income families, veterans, single mothers and fathers, and people with disabilities are some of the groups seeking help at Feeding South Florida.
“In South Florida counties, more than 967,000 people rely on this type of assistance,” Vélez warned.
“At the beginning of this year, we saw about 40 families a day. By early October (when the government shut down), the number doubled,” said Jessica Benites, the organization’s chief of staff. During the first week of November, the organization served an average of 120 families per day.
Food is donated by agricultural producers and supermarkets, and on one wall, they display some of the donations they receive, ranging from $3,000 to $380,000, from food distributors to auto manufacturers.
And while the federal government has resumed operations, Feeding South Florida is preparing to extend its hours with volunteers who come in weekly to check product quality and organize food in the pantry.
With her latest SNAP deposit, Biskup went to a wholesale store to buy products that would stretch her benefits.
She also visits a community center in Miami Beach where she gets a free lunch after practicing Tai Chi or Qi Gong, disciplines that help her exercise and stay calm despite losing control of her movements due to Parkinson’s. She says she’s determined to fight to maintain the lifestyle she worked for all her life.
“This apartment is my refuge, the place where I recovered from two cancer treatments and where I hope to live through whatever Parkinson’s brings,” she says. “I’ll do everything I can to keep living by the sea.”
Image: DiarioNY
