Money woes has Meals on Wheels program reeling

back

Want to support Global Action on Aging?

Click below:

Thanks!

Money woes has Meals on Wheels program reeling

By Gabe Friedman from NAPA News.com
October 5, 2003

Five days a week, Norma Simi picks up a carload of provisions from the Napa County Jail and drives to Yountville, where she prepares meals for the community's seniors.

Whether she is delivering meals in Yountville or sitting with the seniors who come to eat at the community hall, Simi is loved and loves her job.

"We're just all like a family," she said. "We use what food they give us and I add just a little bit more."

The seniors who have eaten with her for the past three years say coming to the community hall for lunch is the most important part of their day.

"Just to share a meal, that's what's important," said Julia Beckett of Yountville.

"I just figure I'll live a little longer if I eat here," said Burnie Manzer, a senior resident in Yountville. "This is the Boys and Girls Club for old people. I've met more people my age in Yountville than I did in all the years before this."

But the Meals on Wheels program is struggling, Yountville seniors may not be served the free meals for long and Simi may soon lose her job.

The county's Meals on Wheels program is currently struggling through its second financial crisis of the year. In June, administrators surprised the public by saying it was nearing a shutdown if the program didn't raise $14,000. That money and more was ultimately raised through private donations. Three months later, Meals on Wheels leaders told the Yountville Town Council that without an additional $7,200, services to that community might close by the end of the year.

Meals and Wheels officials said that after a recent meeting with Yountville Town Administrator Kevin Plett, it looked like the city was interested in helping to keep the program running for at least a little while. The Yountville town council is expected to decide how much funding it can provide to the program at its next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

But the program's ongoing problems along with the fact that other senior nutrition programs are operating in the valley have caused members of the non-profit community to stand up and take notice.

"It got our attention big time," said Dan Corsello, a spokesman for the Gasser Foundation.

Earlier this year the Napa-based foundation began a study of senior nutrition programs, hoping to identify the strengths of the different efforts and recommend efficiencies. The report, which will look at Meals on Wheels, the Food Bank, the Brown Bag Program, the Salvation Army's daily meals, the First Presbyterian Church's meals, the food pantry in St. Helena , in Berryessa and Calistoga Cares, is due out later this month.

Corsello said Meals on Wheels' June swoon opened his eyes. "What a terrifying thought: That all 450 homebound seniors, they're not going to get food anymore. That was a scary thought. A bunch of us at the Gasser Foundation got together and said, 'How does this happen?'"

The answer, according to Meals on Wheels officials, is a dramatic drop in state support and private donations. Last week, administrative director Leslie Moore said the Yountville program is in jeopardy because it is relatively costly to serve a small number of seniors that participate in that community and that Yountville private donations were not keeping up.

This week, Kasey Green, deputy director of Meals on Wheels and executive director of Community Action Napa Valley (CANV), which oversees the food program, added that this year's grant from the State Department of Aging was $26,000 less than expected.

Yountville, she said, "happens to be the smallest (Meals on Wheels) site in the valley, yet its personnel costs are the same."

She also pointed out that other parts of the senior nutrition program were also in danger.

The brown bag program, which provides groceries to senior's homes, "was on the cutting block until the state got it back on track," she said.

"We budget extremely conservative. There's no fluff in this program," said Green.

In June, even before Meals on Wheels directors knew about the $26,000 shortfall in state funding, Moore made rounds to the city and town councils in Napa County asking for grants. Napa , American Canyon and Yountville all made contributions totaling $18,000.

CANV, Meals on Wheels' parent organization, has so far solicited $14,319 in private donations.

But CANV, which oversees about 50 charitable organizations in the county, has its own struggles.

According to an August cash flow analysis by accountant Dennis Hutchings, who was brought in to look at CANV accounting, the group must raise at least $100,000 to keep its central administration staff working full-time.

On Sept. 29th, CANV formally severed its relationship with Nuestra Esperanza, a Latino multi-service center that provided mental health counseling. Other programs may follow.

But the instability at Meals on Wheels has generated the most attention.

"There was a confluence of events that really undermined CANV's ability to deliver for Meals on Wheels and other programs," said Napa city Councilman and CANV Board member David Crawford.

Crawford rattled down the list: sluggish economy, state and federal budget crunch, increased need and donor hesitation.

The Gasser Foundation survey will examine each senior nutrition program in the valley: how many people they serve, how often they operate, who is eligible, what their revenue sources and expenditures are.

Bill Chadwick, director of the Napa Valley Coalition of Non-Profits, and Terry Longabardi, a consultant, are conducting the survey.

But for the moment, the Meals on Wheels program remains stuck in a financial hole that will likely effect the Yountville program. Although the city granted Meals on Wheels $2,000 in June, Green said that an additional $7,342 will be needed to make the program run through the fiscal year to next June. But that doesn't include Simi's job.

To pay Simi for an entire year's worth of work, which includes picking up the food, preparing it, delivering it to the community's homebound seniors and then coming back to the community hall to serve more seniors' meals, would take an additional $11,000 or so.

But Green said that the program cannot afford to pay someone, and so they will look for a volunteer to keep the Meals on Wheels home delivery program running.

The Gasser Foundation's Corsello said the situation deserves more than a crisis by crisis effort.

"We didn't want to just throw a little bit of money at it," he said.