The head of the Iowa Department on Aging says while the state scores good marks on a national report of hunger among senior citizens, 4% of the Iowa’s elderly people still don’t get adequate meals. Director John McCalley says federal stimulus dollars are temporarily helping.

“There’s a likelihood that the condition is a little bit better than what this report says because of those federal dollars,” McCalley says. “We also know that this report indicates that food insecurity among older adults is a problem that has, over time, been growing and it projects that it will continue to be a growing problem over the next ten years.”

The national reports shows Iowa ranking 41st among the states where older people are most likely to have inadequate nutrition. They’re most at risk in Mississippi, South Carolina and Arkansas, while the top ranking states are: Nebraska, Minnesota and New Hampshire.