by Christine Perera
As a student intern for the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, I have spent much of the fall semester discovering ways in which hunger affects my community. I work part-time as a resident assistant at a nursing home in my hometown, Boerne. While forming deep friendships with residents, I have learned that aging often presents new vulnerabilities. One such vulnerability is hunger.
Meals on Wheels is a food aid program that prepares and delivers nutritious meals to senior citizens. Its volunteers also combat social isolation by visiting with and ensuring the safety of participants. Volunteers deliver meals and perform safety checks daily, making Meals on Wheels a multifaceted care provider. Sometimes, volunteers are the only people participants interact with all day. In a conversation with Debbie King, Executive Director of Meals on Wheels in Waco, I discovered that volunteers have entered houses while delivering meals to find senior citizens on the floor, unable to get up, with no one to call for help. When they spot small health issues in participants, volunteers also reassure and report to worried family members.
COVID-19 has put senior citizens at significant risk. Not only are they more susceptible to developing severe cases of the virus, they are also more likely to face obstacles in accessing food. While Governor Abbotts’ stay at home orders mitigate the spread of COVID-19, they also pose challenges. Because senior citizens are at increased risk of severe illness, many cannot make regular trips to the grocery store, and thus it can be challenging for them to access food. Add in difficult-to-find transportation and limited personal funds, and the problems seniors face due to COVID-19 increase. The barriers senior citizens face to put food on the table have led many to food assistance programs like Meals on Wheels. According to Debbie King, the Meals on Wheels program in Waco has seen a 20% increase in participants since February. Studies from the national Meals on Wheels program reveal an average participant increase of 47% since COVID-19 protocols were put in place in March. To make matters worse, the Meals on Wheels Pulse survey revealed that 97% of Meals on Wheels chapters have seen a rise in net costs. This is because individual chapters need more resources to ensure food is safely made and delivered. It is also because local Meals on Wheels chapters have increased food portions to compensate for the unpredictability of resources. Meals on Wheels in Waco has increased their portions sizes by 30%.
Although the program received emergency funding through federal funds such as the CARES Act, Meals on Wheels has had to work around reduced state funds from Texas aid programs, like Texans Feeding Texans. Texans Feeding Texans is a grant program funded by the Texas Department of Agriculture that supports home-delivered food aid programs to qualifying counties. In order to qualify, a county must also contribute toward the food delivery program with a baseline fee for each county resident age 60 and older (as determined by census data). In a recent seminar on Texans Feeding Texans, King explained that the program is up for review in the Sunset Commission. Each program reviewed by the Sunset Commission gets voted on during the following legislative session. In the past, aid programs without enough advocates were cut in the voting process. The Texans Feeding Texans program will be voted on during the 2021 legislative session, and the program could be at risk of reduced funding. In June, the Texas Legislature cut 5% of funding in all departments of the state, including the Texas Department of Agriculture. This means that the Texans Feeding Texans program faces a budget cut of up to $1,400,000 during the current budget biennium.
Debbie King explained that, because of budget cuts, Meals on Wheels has been unable to deliver to participants daily, as before; volunteers now follow their routes 3-5 times a week. The program may soon be unable to afford serving all its participants. Program cutbacks have already caused participants to feel isolated and distressed. Some seniors are afraid that they will fall sick or get hurt with no one nearby to rely on.
We were all blind-sighted when the pandemic hit. No one was prepared for the suffering it would cause. Senior citizens have been impacted more than most, but we can help. In order to care for senior citizens, Meals on Wheels relies on state funding, federal funding, and private donations of time and money. You can make a difference by calling your state representatives to advocate for the Texans Feeding Texans program. You can also donate your time or make a monetary contribution to your local Meals on Wheels program. By getting involved, you can help the Meals on Wheels program receive needed supplies, deliver more meals, and conduct more safety checks. Please visit https://www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/ (national organization) and https://mowwaco.org/ (Waco chapter) to contribute to or learn more about the Meals on Wheels program.
_____
Christine Perera is a Senior at Baylor University. She is majoring in Professional Writing and Rhetoric and minoring in Philosophy. Christine enjoys the outdoors and loves to read.
______
Work Cited:
Help. Meals on Wheels Waco, mowwaco.org/.
Meals on Wheels America, www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/.
NEW SURVEY DATA: MEALS ON WHEELS NATIONAL NETWORK CONTINUES TO FACE UNPRECEDENTED DEMAND AND RISING COSTS DUE TO COVID-19, 12 Aug. 2020, www.mealsonwheelsamerica.org/learn-more/national/press-room/news/2020/08/12/new-survey-data-meals-on-wheels-national-network-continues-to-face-unprecedented-demand-and-rising-costs-due-to-covid-19.
Perera, Christine S, and Debbie King. “Conversation About Meals on Wheels.” 29 Sept. 2020.