By: Kathleen McLean
Meals on Wheels, a service that provides food to hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people is looking at significant cuts from federal funding. The government makes up for approximately one-third of the cost for the service. For the people that use meals on wheels, this is a difference of them being able to stay in the comfort of their homes or having to be forced into a nursing home, or state run facility. The meals on wheels program are vital to our communities and can not afford to be cut. For some people not only is it a service that ensures they have at least one hot meal per day with snacks also included but, it may be their only human contact for days.
Donald Trump is proposing a budget cut that would leave some cities and states scrambling to find a way to feed our most vulnerable citizens. Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney was quoted as saying “Meals on Wheels sounds great, but we’re not going to spend on programs that cannot show that they deliver the promises we’ve made to people.”
The Meals on Wheels Organization hasn’t given up all hope just yet; they are urging people to call their state representatives and leave messages about the program. They are scrambling for every donation they can get their hands on. With the White House being run by the Republican Party they know it will be an up-hill battle.
