Hungry for some Liberal compassion

Randall Denley, a very good city columnist at the Ottawa Citizen, gives the facts about Ontario nursing homes:

Try feeding your mom on $5.57 a day

Never let it be said that Ontario's Liberal government doesn't care about the elderly. Earlier this month, the province increased the daily food allowance for people in long-term care by 11 cents. That's right, a dime and a penny. That means the nursing home your mother is in now has $5.57 cents a day to feed her.

How could anyone provide three nutritious meals for so little, you might ask. Not surprisingly, the long-term care homes can't. The daily amount should actually be $7, the Dietitians of Canada say. The dietitians told the provincial government that last year, but it didn't act.

Even at $7 a day, the province's nursing homes would be stretching to provide three main meals, three snacks and drinks.

The extra money would let the nursing homes feed their 75,000 residents such things as one scrambled egg and one sausage link for breakfast (34 cents) or a banana at lunch (29 cents). At dinner, a baked potato and sour cream (27 cents) would be possible and a tuna sandwich would be affordable for an evening snack (34 cents). We're not talking filet mignon and lobster here...

Mark C.

Update: How nursing homes try to do it. Looks like hospital food which, other than breakfast and soup, I find mostly inedible.

Posted by markc at July 17, 2007 03:56 PM