Russian seniors facing dire poverty seek expired food for survival
Recently, a recording from Moscow has been circulating online. It shows a group of retirees searching for expired food through trash bins behind a market. A similar event was recorded in Saint Petersburg in mid-April, where a fight broke out among seniors.
A recording from Moscow appeared online, showing a group of seniors gathering behind one of the markets. It was one of many such meetings involving sifting through garbage in search of expired food. In this particular instance, they were mainly seeking dairy products.
While many products have suggested consumption dates, in the case of dairy, such as eggs or milk, consuming them after the expiration date can significantly impact health. Nonetheless, for many retirees in Russia, this is their only means of avoiding starvation.
The phenomenon of trash scavenging for food intensified after the Ukraine war outbreak. Although the number of benefits hasn't decreased since then, many products, including basic medicines, have significantly increased in price, pushing seniors, among others, into severe poverty.
Russian seniors, to survive, rummage through trash
The inefficiency of the Russian system right after the outbreak of the war is visible not only in outlying areas but also in the centres of large cities, where the cost of living is significantly higher. It is precisely there that thousands of seniors struggle with poverty and hunger, leading them to search for food in dumpsters behind markets.
The desperation of these people is immense, as demonstrated by the April brawl by the dumpsters in Saint Petersburg. A group of seniors went at each other's throats over some expired food there. Currently, many of them admit that rummaging through dumpsters has become somewhat of a routine.
