City May Freeze Out Hot Meals




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City May Freeze Out Hot Meals

By Curtis L. Taylor

January 13, 2004

At 101, Arthurine Wong spends most of her days resting alone inside her Bronx apartment.

There is an occasional visit from her niece, but friends say that the highlight of the senior's day is when the city-funded Meals on Wheels delivery driver Waynette Woney shows up with a hot meal.

Advocates for the needy say that Wong and more than 17,000 other seniors throughout the city may eventually be frozen out of their hot meals under a new pilot program in the Bronx initiated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg to streamline costs with the city facing a $2 billion deficit in fiscal year 2005.

Under the proposal, most hot meals and daily visits would be replaced in the Bronx with a weekly allotment of frozen meals delivered at once, officials said.

Susan Stamler, director of policy and advocacy for United Neighborhood Houses, said the Meals on Wheels program provides a safety net for seniors.

"We are concerned that the city's plan would place homebound frail elderly at unacceptable risk," Stamler said. "While we understand the need to promote cost-saving measures and plan for future caseload increases, we urge the city to find alternative ways that allow seniors to remain living independently at home."

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. has asked the city to reconsider the plan, after receiving calls from concerned seniors.

But Edwin Mendez-Santiago, commissioner of the city Department for the Aging, defended the pilot program and accused advocates of misleading seniors. In a statement, he said the pilot program would actually "build the capacity of its home-delivered meal program in the Bronx " with the number of elderly expected to increase by 28.2 percent during the next 15 years.

"The Bronx pilot project will not lead to the loss of any home-delivered meals, will not close senior centers and will not limit the daily delivery of hot meals to seniors who have been assessed as requiring them," he said.

Now, 550,000 Bronx home-delivered meals are served each year, Mendez-Santiago said. The pilot program consolidated from 17 contracts to three, for a considerable savings for the Department for the Aging, which receives $8 million in city funding annually.

But smaller Meals on Wheels providers such as the Rev. Idus Nunn Jr., director of the Arturo Schomburg Senior Center in the Bronx , said the pilot program would hurt seniors like Wong.

"She certainly can't heat up the food herself," said Nunn, whose center is sponsored by The Institute for Puerto Rican and Hispanic Elderly. "But it is not just the meal, she has no family members. ... It is the daily contact along with the meal that makes this special."