DENVER -- Nearly ten percent of the senior citizen population in this country lives below the poverty line. That is according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

That means many seniors have to choose between putting food on the table and buying medicine or paying rent. But they have a friend in this week's 7Everyday Hero, Donna Rothbauer. She runs the Front Range Senior Citizens Food Bank.

"I love it. I have been coming here for years," said client Mavis Ruebeck.

The food bank allows seniors on fixed incomes to shop for their meals with ease and dignity.

"The food really helps because I am low-income," said Ruebeck.

The food bank has operated out of Denver's Valley Vista United Methodist Church for 15 years. It started 24 years ago after Rothbauer said she witnessed something behind a grocery store that changed her life.

"They would bring out the bread and throw it into the Dumpster. And as soon as they would close the door, the mobs would go into that Dumpster and they got that bread.

"And I thought, 'I do not know why God is having me see this everyday. There must be reason.' And I went and asked the store: 'Could you donate that so we could set it up like a grocery store and people could actually pick their own food instead of diving in a Dumpster? (They said), 'Well, sure, come tomorrow.'"

Rothbauer has been giving her time to run the Front Range Senior Citizens Food Bank ever since.

"If it was not for Donna, we would not have the food bank," said fellow volunteer Virginia Walz.

Rothbauer adds: "There are people who are so needy. There is no way to quit."

The food bank serves 300 seniors every week. It takes no government subsidies; the food is donated; and the staff is made up of three dozen volunteers who give their time and help deliver The Prime Time for Seniors newspaper.

The delivery money goes to buy more food. That fulfills Donna Rothbauer's dream that no senior citizen ever has to dig in a Dumpster for a meal.