Meals On Wheels Sequester Cuts Mean Layoffs, Waiting Lists And Canceled Food Deliveries

[marmar]

WASHINGTON -- Budget cuts are stealing meals from elderly Americans all across the country, according to a new survey by the Meals On Wheels Association of America.

The association represents about 5,000 local senior nutrition groups in every state, coordinating volunteers who deliver a million meals a day to poor senior citizens. Since 1972, the federal government has helped pay for the meals through the Administration on Aging, which did not escape the 5.1 percent cut to non-defense discretionary spending this year, also called sequestration.

Meals On Wheels surveyed 640 of its local member organizations on how they've coped since the cuts took effect in March. Forty percent of programs have eliminated staff positions. Seventy percent are putting more people on waiting lists, increasing the number of those on waiting lists by an average of 58 seniors per list. And programs have cut an average of 364 meals per week.

"Every day, Meals on Wheels programs provide a lifeline by serving meals to our nation’s most vulnerable, frail, and isolated seniors," association president Ellie Hollander said in a statement. "The real impact of sequester is that our programs don’t have the ability to expand to meet the growing need. We should be investing in these programs to ensure our seniors have the nutritious meals they need to remain healthy and independent." .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/04/meals-on-wheels-sequester_n_3384817.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

[RoccoR5955]

1. Great Job Republicans!

Now you are killing your opposition!
364 meals cut, at 2 meals a day supplied comes down to 26 people a week. Add that to the 58 on waiting (to die) lists, and you get 84 people in each of the 640 surveyed programs, comes out to about 54,000 fewer voters you damn bass turds have to worry about.

[Zoeisright]

3. Most seniors vote repuke.

So they're actually killing their base.

[RoccoR5955]

4. I don't know where you live,

but an awful lot of them here vote Democrat.

[AndyA]

2. Of course Meals On Wheels has been cut

We can't spend over $4 billion a year on making sure all of Walmart's employees don't drop dead of malnourishment because Walmart won't pay them a living wage, subsidize the oil companies that are barely squeaking by on only a couple billion profit per quarter, waste time and money in Congress repealing Obamacare 9,459 times, etc., etc., etc., and keep Meals On Wheels intact.

Priorities, you know.