12:24 PM CDT on Friday, July 15, 2005

By Carolyn Campbell / 11 News

Many senior citizens who depend on weekly visits to local food pantries need the food not just for themselves, but because they are taking of grandchildren.

One grandmother is dealing with food and a few other problems.

KHOU-TV

Corsetta Birdow is on a fixed income and struggles to make ends meet to take care of her two grandchildren.

Many of the women in this crowd have children at home, but most of them are their grandchildren.

"She don't eat baby food?" a volunteer asks a grandmother.

Despite their years life hasn't gotten easier. That's why they're at the South Union Baptist Church Food Pantry, waiting for a bag of groceries.

"So we try to provide as much as we can. Ninety percent of our food comes from the Food Bank," says Joycestine Carter of South Union Baptist Church Food Pantry.

Responsibilities have grown for Corsetta Birdow. At 67, she's raising three of her great grandchildren.

Channel, 14, and her 19-year-old brother Jeremiah, put away the donated bag of groceries.

"Grandma the ice box ain't on, so I don't know where these carrots are gonna go," Channel says.

They wonder what to do with food that needs to be refrigerated because Birdow's electricity has been turned off.

"Things is tough, bills is piling up and I can't hardly pay 'em. [I'm] robbing Peter to pay Paul," says Birdow.

On a fixed income, she started caring for her three great-grandkids seven years ago.

"They mother died in 1998 and they grandmother died in 2000," she says, wiping away tears.

The losses and the struggles they face now are difficult for Channel to talk about.

Birdow says experience, faith and an occasional helping hand keep her going.

"You just have to keep going," she says.