Cutbacks forcing CDHD to end senior citizen meal subsidy

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Typically, about 56 seniors attend one of the meals offered three times a week at the senior center

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."

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  • Well Well Well, Here we go again. This is like a SiFi movie. We now take the ability of feeding the seniors at home and 3times a week at the center. Is this a start of population control or what?? I my self find this horrible tasteless,{no pun} and a cruel way to exterminate the senior population. Most of the folks that use the program don't take advantage of it. It is the only way they get a balanced meal in there diet's 3 times a week. I fear allot of people here in Mountain Home do not realize how many poor and desperate some of our seniors live. They close there eye's to the condition's they have to live and survive in. We are so happy to jump on the band wagon and feed all the other nations that are hungry but forget who is hungry in our own neighborhoods. if I had a wonderful idea how to help this situation I would gladly. The only thing Ive been able to do is help one family at a time. Hoping I could make a difference. As a senior my self this is heart breaking to see.

    -- Posted by Green Eyed Lady on Wed, Mar 11, 2009, at 1:32 PM
  • Green Eyed, I agree. What a loss this program is. The rich get richer and the hungry get more hungry. It is sad. Maybe the WECRD will give $225,000 to keep the program alive. Eating can be a form of recreation. This program is needed. What a shame.

    -- Posted by OpinionMissy on Thu, Mar 12, 2009, at 5:07 PM
  • I wrote a smll article last year which the paper was kind enough to print (When words are not enough) about my familys and my feeling about the senior center. It would be such a shame to change the curriculum as some older folks do not adjust to change well. I have seen Patty and JoAnn who run the kitchen,and have given of themseves tirelessly and love the seniors as family. We all remember how many years Lydia was very active at seniors and we were privileged to attend her 100th birthday recently.She ate there for many many years. Lets not change a good thing.

    -- Posted by Bob Pursell on Fri, Mar 13, 2009, at 10:15 AM
  • I wrote a small article last year which the paper was kind enough to print.(When words are not enough) about my family and my feelings about Senior Center. It would be such a shame to change the curriculum as some older folks do not adjust to change well. I have seen Patty & Joann who run the kitchen, and have given of themselves tirelessly and love the seniors as family. We all remember how many years Lydia was very active at Seniors and we were privilege to attend her 100th birthday recently. She ate there many, many years. Lets not change a good thing.

    -- Posted by Robert Pursell on Fri, Mar 13, 2009, at 3:26 PM
  • OM,

    What does the WECRD have to do with meals on wheels?

    Please stay on topic.

    It's an absolute shame that this is being cut.

    I agree with Green Eyed Lady that we should be more concerned with our neighborhood issues before we focus on other nations.

    -- Posted by yoB on Sun, Mar 15, 2009, at 6:00 PM
  • *

    I am totally outraged that our community stands to lose the ability to help feed seniors and disabled through Meals on Wheels and the Senior Center. These are programs that just cannot be shut down, funds have to be found. While I was amused by OM's comment on wecrd donating money, that isnt going to work, however, how about less money to the golf course and more money to the Seniors??

    What is our illustrious Mayor and City Council using the funds from the Camera 8 for now that they shut them down, removing valuable programming from the city?? Now we dont even have the ability to view City Council meetings or town meetings, public hearings etc. Oh wait, must have gone to the golf course!

    I agree with Green Eyed Lady that for most of us we can only help one family at a time, which while it makes a difference, it is merely a tiny drop in the bucket. Our Seniors and disabled deserve better, they worked the land, they worked in our factories, our government or military and our businesses and this is how we treat them.....disgusting!

    If someone involved with this program would be willing to blog back to us as a community perhaps giving us some ideas on how we can assist the programs maybe we can pull together and make a difference for all.

    -- Posted by Ds_Seester on Mon, Mar 16, 2009, at 12:33 PM
  • The City did not "shut down" Cam-8. The Board of Directors of the independent 501-c(3) voted to dissolve themselves. The City Council voted to withhold funding while the Board sorted out their own disbanding, in order to protect the taxpayers. The annual appropriation was $17,500, of which approximately 4-5000 had been expended. The unexpended balance was included in the nearly $500,000 the city made in budget cuts due to the extreme financial crisis of which we are all a part. None of it went to the Golf Course. Cam-8's equipment was transferred to the city, and the city retains one cable channel provided under the terms of the city's franchise agreement with Time Warner. The City is currently considering donating the equipment to the school's video production classes, which may be able to resume the programming at some time.

    As regards the meals on wheels program, I wholeheartedly agree that we as a community need to seriously evaluate this need and look at all options. I know the Mayor is involved in discussions, as am I, in exploring all avenues to keep this vital program running. We will do what we can.

    -- Posted by Councilman Schroeder on Wed, Mar 18, 2009, at 10:54 AM
  • This is unbelievable. How can thay justify taking this money away? What possible better use could they find? Is there even other providers to go out and court? This sucks. We as a country need to get our priorities straight. I hope that everyone that read that article writes every city, county, state, and federal representative. I sure am.

    There must be a way to do this ourselves. This program cannot be allowed to fail. About 500 meals or so a week? The kitchen can't be too hard to replace. It sounds as if they use donations and fund raisers. Maybe there could be an intensificaton in the fund raising. Go out and seek more corporate donations. Somebody said in a post that maybe someone involved with this could post on here. That would maybe give us some direction to start. I don't think that I could be any more ****** off.

    -- Posted by AtomicDog on Wed, Mar 18, 2009, at 11:19 AM
  • yoB

    Stay on task yourself. The comment was maybe the the WERCD would give some money to help, since it is for a senior program and they want to do anything for seniors.

    -- Posted by lovemthome on Wed, Mar 18, 2009, at 3:42 PM
  • Here's part of a response that I got to an email to Senator Crapo.....

    You will be interested to know that I have signed onto a Dear Colleagues letter authored by Senators Christopher Bond (R-Missouri) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) that support additional funding for the CHC program. Specifically, the letter requests $2.6 billion in funding for fiscal year 2010, which would bring funding to the authorized level. As you may know, Idaho has 12 CHCs, which provide care to 33 communities throughout the state. In 2007, CHCs provided medical and dental care to over 112,000 Idahoans. Since 2007, this figure has only increased and will only continue to do so.

    Like you, I recognize the long history of quality, affordable care that health centers have offered over the past 30 years. The CHC program is one of the best examples of a partnership between government and local communities that works. Health centers provide primary and preventative care which lowers the use of relatively costly inpatient, specialty, and emergency room care. They are critical to stemming the rising numbers of uninsured individuals that have limited access to quality health care. As you may know, current funding levels for the health centers program have failed to keep pace with the overwhelming need for their services. Few government programs have made as significant a contribution to low-income families at such a cost-effective and high-quality a manner as health centers.

    Responses on the local level were split 50/50 with Rist and Schroeder being very positive and two others just throwing up their hands and saying tough.

    -- Posted by VT on Wed, Apr 1, 2009, at 4:59 PM
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