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Trump Budget Cuts Rattle Meals On Wheels

3 min read

It isn’t the end of the road for Meals on Wheels.

But the food delivery program for senior shut-ins could soon find itself strapped for cash.

President Donald Trump’s proposed, $1.15 trillion budget includes cuts to or elimination of grants and agencies that administer Meals on Wheels programs to the nation’s elderly. In central Arkansas, under the direction of the nonprofit CareLink, Meals on Wheels brings food to seniors’ doorsteps in six counties.

“We really pride ourselves on being as lean and cost efficient as possible with the money we do have,” said Michelle Gilbert, outreach and marketing officer at CareLink. “We rely partially on volunteer hours to get those meals out and deliver to the seniors, but if these cuts were to take place we would just be relying more heavily on community support and private contributions.”

CareLink is a 37-year-old nonprofit serving homebound and active seniors and caregivers in Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner, Lonoke, Monroe and Prairie counties. Part of that role includes Meals on Wheels, a free, need-based service that feeds roughly 15,000 people in the state a year, providing about 1,200 meals a day.

A National Foundation to End Senior Hunger report released last year shows Arkansas is the worst state in the nation for food insecurity among the elderly, with nearly 25 percent of the state’s seniors facing the threat of hunger in 2014.

“I think there is a lot of misconception that food insecurity among seniors stems from financial restraints and that’s just not always the case,” Gilbert said. She noted many seniors are physically unable to drive to do grocery shopping, stand in checkout lines or even stand long enough to prepare food at home.

The Trump budget — called a “skinny budget” because it is a pared down version with details to come — does not specifically target Meals on Wheels, which is not a federal program. But it proposes to cut the Department of Health and Human Services budget by nearly 18 percent and eliminate some antipoverty programs, including the Community Development Block Grants that in some states help pay for senior nutrition programs.

Most Meals on Wheels programs get the bulk of their federal money through the Administration for Community Living, a DHHS agency serving the elderly and disabled that has a $227 million line item for “home-delivered nutrition services,” according to a report in USA Today.

Gilbert said CareLink is funded through a “a good amount” of private donations and philanthropic efforts. But the nonprofit would definitely feel the pain if the budget ax fell on the block grants, a $3 billion program begun during the Gerald Ford administration, and other DHHS agencies in the Trump budget crosshairs.

“That’s the source that all the hoopla has been about, that’s still a source for us,” Gilbert said of the block grants.

Based on its most recent annual report, CareLink has a meals budget of $3.9 million for the six-county area with $1.9 million, or 50 percent, coming from federal sources.

In fiscal year 2016, Gilbert said, Meals on Wheels provided 611,901 meals to seniors in need. If Trump’s proposed DHHS budget were enacted, Gilbert said it would mean a $404,000 budget cut for the region and would equate to 404 seniors who would no longer receive meals.

Gilbert said the Meals on Wheels program gets results, citing a 2012 Brown University report, which shows its effectiveness. Gilbert said benefits include better diet and nutrition for seniors, meaning fewer health issues that could require costly options like hospitalization or assisted living, as well as the health benefits of socializing to reduce loneliness and isolation.

“There are a lot of people who are undernourished through no fault of their own,” Gilbert said.

But, other than hoping for an increase in donations and philanthropic money, Gilbert said CareLink does not yet have any proposals to offset the projected loss in federal money.

“I haven’t heard anyone here speak to that,” she said. “I think all we can do is kind of keep our fingers crossed and hope if there are cuts they’re not as drastic as proposed.”

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