To call attention to the issue, several photographers and seniors are featured at a new photo gallery at the Jewish Community Center Metro West in West Orange.
WEST ORANGE -- Mary Bedward, 66, worked for 16 years as a staff member at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital before a back injury from a five-car accident in 2004 forced her to retire.
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She now receives $16 a month in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits based on her income, has COPD, and needs an at-home nurse.
"Really, I didn't think about being older, or old (when I was younger). I didn't think about it. I just took one day at a time, whatever it was, sticking by my Father in Heaven. Whatever that day was, He got me through," Bedward said.
Bedward is among several senior citizen photographers featured in a new photo gallery at the Jewish Community Center Metro West in West Orange that opened on Tuesday.
The exhibit is a project of the N.J. Anti-Hunger Coalition, and will remain open through Dec. 21.
Called "N.J. Soul of Hunger: The Hidden Reality of Hunger Among Seniors and the Disabled," it was funded by a grant from the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.
The project was coordinated by several area Jewish social service organizations, including the Jewish Family Service of Central N.J., and featured their clients from around N.J.
"Record numbers of seniors and people with disabilities in our state regularly face difficult choices between buying food keeping their lights on, or paying for medications and other health care costs," the groups said in a flyer.
Bedward was asked by Jewish Family Service of Central NJ, which she said provides her with her nurse, to take photos of her life. She featured her pill bottles and Bible in her pictures.
She participated "because, I know what it's like," Bedward said, beginning to tear up. "I live alone and I know what it's like for others like me: disabled and elderly, that have to make a decision between our medication and our food...Can you live on $16?"
At a press event at the center on Tuesday, NJ Foundation for Aging Director Grace Egan was among many senior and anti-hunger advocates who spoke. N.J. Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D) also gave a speech, calling for action.
"For some (seniors), they have difficulty breaking out of what has been a cycle of poverty. One of the things that help people break out of their cycle of poverty is affordable housing," Egan told NJ Advance Media.
"Those that are furthest away from working are the most economically challenged. You may retire at 65, you may have saved, but this level of inflation is something that you couldn't plan for....All of a sudden, you're one catastrophe away from living in poverty."
Adele Latourette, the executive director of the N.J. Anti-Hunger Coalition, called for support for three legislative proposals for N.J. seniors and disabled SNAP applicants.
The group's proposals include the implementation of a "standard medical deduction," so seniors aren't using their money for food for medication; an increase of the minimum household benefit from $16 to $30 per month; and a simplified SNAP application to make the enrollment process easier for seniors.
Though the SNAP program has been criticized as inefficiently run in New Jersey, it is "well-known and documented that the majority of people who receive SNAP are on it temporarily... and almost half are working," said Melanie Roth Gorelick, a leader in the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest N.J., which co-sponsored the program.
"Hunger is growing in America and New Jersey. It's not lessening."
Laura Herzog may be reached at lherzog@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LauraHerzogL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.