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Cutbacks forcing CDHD to end senior citizen meal subsidy
The status of the congregate meals and Meals on Wheels programs at the Mountain Home Senior Center are up in the air after a decision by Central District Health Department to end its subsidy of those programs.
The center has not received official notification of the end of the contract for the program, but unofficially the center's leaders have been told the subsidy will be ending some time between May 31 and June 30.
Central District Health is the only health district in the state that offers a subsidy for the senior meals programs, and will be ending the 34-year-old program in response to cutbacks in funding.
Senior meals programs, including Meals On Wheels, are supported by state, county and federal funding, as well as donations and fund raising. Over the years CDHD has supplemented the programs with money from its discretionary funds to the tune of approximately $225,000 per year. Now faced with a 6 percent state holdback for FY 2009, and an expected 10 percent budget cut for FY 2010, the agency has had to decide where to make cuts in order to continue supporting core public health programs, such as vaccination clinics, reproductive counseling, and restaurant and child care inspections, according to Dave Fotsch, public information officer for the Central District Health Department.
The health district provides its subsidy for ten centers in Ada County and the Mountain Home and Glenns Ferry senior centers in Elmore County. It is under contract with the SW Idaho Area Agency on Aging to manage all senior nutrition programs in Elmore and Ada counties.
Currently, the Mountain Home Senior Center provides meals on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with an average of 56 people taking advantage of the service at any given meal. It costs about $6 to produce a meal.
Sage Community Resources, a group that provides contract services for the state, including the Area Agency on Aging, provides $2.08 cents of subsidy for a congregate meal, and $2.40 for a meal delivered by volunteers to homebound area residents through the Meals on Wheels program. Those utilizing the services also provide a donation that typically ranges from $2 to $3 per meal.
The subsidy numbers (which exclude the additional CDHD subsidy), come from federal funds. Under the Older Americans Act, the Area Agency on Aging is responsible for seeing that such meals are provided, but the exact nature of that mandate and the amount of money it might have available to make up the difference is unknown to the local senior center board at this point.
The Mountain Home Senior Center board met last week to consider its options, but they had more questions than answers at this point. It could fall back on the Area Agency on Aging to find a provider for its meals service, but right now no one knows what that group's financial capability would be to pick up the slack caused by the loss of the CDHD subsidy.
It could find its own provider, but the service would require having a licensed dietition available to develop meals that meet the sometimes special needs of senior citizens. That's one of the reasons that volunteers won't work.
And the center really doesn't have any extra funds available to make up the difference in costs, anyway, and in addition will be losing the $250 a month lease payments CDHD had been paying for the kitchen. Board members also noted that the last time they raised the suggested donation level for the meals, a number of people quit coming, believing they couldn't afford it, even though they may have been the ones most in need of the program.
Senior center President Ruthada Powell is spending this week scrambling to identify all the options and alternatives services available, and what the costs would be.
Adding to her problems is the fact that the current meals' staff, and much of the equipment at the center's kitchen, belongs to Central District Health Department. Some of the equipment may stay, but some of it may be removed by CDHD, she said. Any new provider that might be willing to take on the service would have to provide both staff and at least some equipment.
"I really don't know what we're going to do now. We need more answers to our questions," Powell said, "and we really have a very limited amount of time to find someone" who would be willing to replace CDHD, and do it for the money available.
While the center has been asked to offer its own options to replacing CDHD's service, the SW Idaho AAA could contract with a provider for the senior nutrition program in Mountain Home and Glenns Ferry, Fotsch indicated, and discussions between the agencies are ongoing. Or each individual senior center could find its own provider, be it a private company, or another organization, like a hospital with food service, he said.
"At the end of the day, it is the responsibility of Area Agency on Aging to insure meal services continue,"" said Fotsch. "We will do everything in our power to make sure there is a smooth transition to the next contractor."
Between January 2008 and February 2009, the senior nutrition program in Elmore County provided nearly 22,000 meals to area seniors.
Billie Dillon, who sits on the Advisory Board for the Southwest Idaho Area Agency on Aging (SW Idaho AAA) and is a past president of the Three Island Senior Center, said she believes the program can continue to operate at the current level, and is confident that another provider will be found.
"I hope so," Powell said. "This program is far too important to lose."