Meals on Wheels

Factual Questions
1

A meme claims that the cost of Meals on Wheels is $3 million annually, and compares this amount to one golfing trip for Trump. $3 million seems extremely low for Meals on Wheels.

Trump’s budget cuts include $3 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant program, which includes Meals on Wheels. In 2015, Meals on Wheels served meals to two million seniors (219 million meals).

So how much does Meals on Wheels actually cost? Is the program to be eliminated? If not, what amount of the $3 million in cuts to HUD is proposed to be cut from Meals on Wheels?

2

“Meals on Wheels” is not a national organization; rather it is a loose association of various state and local based charities providing meal service for the elderly and infirm. The federal government provides some amount of that funding, with the remaining made up from state governments, private donors, food banks, et cetera. The costs differ between organizations but a good round number is about $3000 per person-year, or around $8 per person-day for reasonably nutritious hot meals for people on fixed incomes for whom shopping for and preparing food is a challenge or not possible. This means that these people are getting proper nutrition, helping protect them from infection and malnutrition syndromes, and not eating the kind of questionable food many poor and elderly people in less developed nations eat and become sicked by.

[OPINION]I don’t give a good whore’s fuck if you’re a bleeding heart liberal or a rock pounding paleoconservative; if you can’t find it in yourself to support endorse this truly paltry amount of funding to provide a basic human need to people who are least able to fend for themselves, you need to pick up and move to one of those countries where people literally the elderly to starve and die in their own filth. Taking care of people at the point of their life when they can no longer adequately provide for themselves is not “socialism”; it is basic human decency.[/OPINION]

Stranger

3

My experience with meals on wheels is most participants in the program pay for thier meals. Very few received meals at no cost.

It’s not an expensive program to maintain and the consequences of not providing it will increase costs elsewhere.

4 
People that get MOW are asked to pay a  donation and everyone I knew that got MOW did paid  whatever they could afford .  I had already posted that MOW is more than just bringing elderlies a hot meal everyday ,this is also wellness checkup  .  This  is not the America I grew up in !  People looked after their elderly neighbors and  not turn their back on them in times of needs !  This  is  a  huge slap in the faces to all our vets that depend on MOW to survive
5

That’s what I’m trying to ascertain. So the direct questions are:

  1. What does Meals on Wheels cost the federal government?

  2. How much of Trump’s proposed cuts be taken from Meals on Wheels?

6

I predict that meals on wheels program will not be cut and will get a slight increase in the amount of funding.

Donald Trump will say, “who knew how important this program was?”

7

“Who knew old people eat?”

8

Maybe, maybe not.

I’m asking about how much Meals on Wheels costs the federal government, and how much the proposed cuts to that amount are. Factual answers.

9

Moderator Note

This thread is in GQ, so let’s stick to the factual aspects of the question, please. Opinions about the importance of the program or the politics involved are better suited to other forums.

10

More likely, “Let them eat steak. Trump Steaks are the most fantastic, the absolute best steaks, sold right from The Sharper Image stores. Three to five million people eat my steaks every day, and they are in the best, believe me, the best health. Even Hillary [“Lock her up!”] eats my steak. My steaks will prevent you from getting the ISIS. If everybody ate my steak, there would be no more ISIS. We’d be done with ISIS, believe me.”

Stranger

11

As noted, this is a state-run (or local) organization. If you go to their web site, they have a fact sheet for each states. From the CA fact sheet:

**TOTAL NUTRITION PROGRAM EXPENDITURES: $143,597,637

EXPENDITURES COVERED BY FEDERAL OAA FUNDING: $52,448,604**

So, about 1/3 of the $$ comes from the feds, for CA.

I picked another state at random (VA), and found these numbers:

**TOTAL NUTRITION PROGRAM EXPENDITURES: $20,755,574

EXPENDITURES COVERED BY FEDERAL OAA FUNDING: $10,865,916**

Which is about 1/2 of $$ coming from the feds, for VA.

12

In Oregon, it’s 54% federal money, which is why I mentioned elsewhere that zeroing out that money would mean shutting down most of the distribution centers in Portland.

Cite.

13

I’m not exactly sure what “zeroing out” that money means, but that assumes the money cannot be gotten elsewhere (from the states themselves, or from private donations).

It should be noted that the OP mentions “Trump’s budget cuts include $3 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Community Development Block Grant program”, but according to Jenny Bertolette, vice president of communications for Meals on Wheels America, “35 percent of its funding comes from the Older American Act Nutrition Program. That program’s funding could be affected by the White House’s proposed cut of about 16 percent to the Department of Health and Human Services.” So, it’s really the HHS budget that is the major player here. So, it’s HHS that is the major player here not HUD.

14

Oregon, like many states is running in serious deficit. The approximately 50,000 seniors getting meals at the quoted rate above comes out to about $135M. Granted, that’s a drop in the bucket considering what is spent at government levels on far less deserving programs. Local communities are as strapped as the state is, so coming up with a seemingly paltry $60M is not that easy. The cite doesn’t say whether the quoted cost per meal (which pencils out to about $11/per) includes overhead, but perhaps it does. MOW has paid employees, facilities to maintain, etc. Relying on donations seems like a precarious way to go about things, as it has to rely on too many unknowns.

15

Point of clarification: This appears to be only for Meals on Wheels, America. That organization is not the totality of Meals on Wheels, which is a catch-all phrase for lots of different programs. I’m not sure just how big MoW, America is or how much of a % of the total MoW program it represents.

It’s looking like finding the exact answer to the OP’s question is going to be a daunting task.

Chefguy: I’m just trying to keep my answer GQ pertinent, not GD.

16

Hence, the thread. :wink:

17

Snopes has a page, noting that they can’t determine the actual percentage.
This saysabout 3%, though looks like that’s just MoW America.

18

John Mace, thanks for the link.

19

Thanks for the cite.

Has anyone else looked at the pdfs for a few states? The numbers don’t make any sense to me. To the point that I am sure I am not understanding what is being conveyed.
For instance, if I am reading the fact sheets at all correctly,

In N. Carolina in 2015
MOW spent $12 million to serve 26,600 congregate meals
MOW spent $6 million to serve 19,000 home-delivered meals

In Louisiana in 2015
MOW spent $6 million to serve 18,000 congregate meals
MOW spent $3 million to serve 19,600 home-delivered meals

There are similar differences in other states. I am not understanding something. Can anyone explain those fact sheets?

20

Not to minimize your very valid and very true benefits, I think the biggest benefit to sell this to conservatives, deficit hawks, etc. is that it keeps these folks out of very expensive nursing homes where many would be existing on the public dime.

Compare the monthly cost of a full-time care existence to a single hot meal a day delivered by a volunteer.