ROANOKE, Va. – The end of the month marks the end of extra, pandemic-related funding for the Meals on Wheels program. That means the Local Office on Aging in Roanoke will be serving fewer seniors and more seniors will have to be placed on a waiting list.
It’s dropped its number from 550 seniors served to 500.
It runs the Meals on Wheels program in the Fifth Planning District of Virginia, which includes Roanoke, Botetourt, Craig and Alleghany counties, as well as Roanoke City, Salem and Covington.
“And it ends 9/30 so what we tried to do this year is [cut] through attrition, so we didn’t have to cut any services off,” said Ron Boyd, president and CEO of the Local Office on Aging. “The waiting list has started because we have started to decrease the meals that we serve because we are losing the extra funding.”
Boyd said the timing is unfortunate because the senior population in the region continues to grow so there’s more demand for their services.
Already, one in four people in the planning district are 65 and older, with that number expected to grow to one in three people in the next decade or so. That’s tracking ahead of both the Virginia and national averages.
Volunteer Steve Vest sees first-hand the impact the program can have on seniors. Seniors have to be 60 years and older and unable to cook a nutritious midday meal for themselves.
“I thought it was an activity where I could give back to the community,” he said. “What’s really more fundamental than bringing somebody a meal?”
10 News spent Wednesday morning with him as he traveled his route in Roanoke delivering meals and asked him about the possibility of budget cuts.
“I was sad about it of course,” Vest said. I think this is a very vital service for people.”
One of the seniors on Vest’s route was Mary Worrell. She’s now wheelchair-bound which makes it hard to cook on her own.
“It’s great for me. It’s kind of dangerous for me, a person in a wheelchair on a stove, trying to get things out of the oven,” Worrell said. “I don’t have balance. I can’t walk.”
She said she loves the options the program provides.
“It’s like Uber, bringing your dinner or lunch right to ya,” she said. “If you want to eat for lunch you can, if you want to put it in your refrigerator and eat it for dinner, you can also do that.”
Boyd said Meals on Wheels and other programs the LOA offers can help seniors like Worrell stay in their homes. He said they’re advocating for more funding on state and federal levels, as well as exploring grants.
“And of course, that’s a more cost-effective way than having to depend on long-term care and assisted living facilities and there’s not enough beds in those,” he said.
Worrell is grateful for the assurance that she will still receive meals.
For those on the waiting list, the emergency food pantry is available to those who have vital food needs while the LOA works to get more funding. They said donations can help fill the gap as well.