Meals on Wheels needs funding — or a little help

In another sign that senior citizens are treated as an afterthought once the work years are over, funding for a program that many have counted on for years has gone stale even as the need among seniors grows. The upcoming U.S. budget for Health and Human Services includes a zero increase in funding for Meals on Wheels — and that means some senior citizens who qualify for — and need — the program are placed on a waitlist.

That bears repeating: we have senior citizens on a waiting list to get food because the flat funding limits the number of seniors the program can feed.

That doesn’t say a lot for government when people in their 70s and 80s are told to wait their turn to eat.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, was in the city recently to stump for more funding for the Meals on Wheels program.

The cost of food is high and a high percentage of seniors live off a monthly Social Security check — and it is no secret, it doesn’t go very far.

LifeBridge Community Services, an organization that targets vulnerable populations in New Haven and Fairfield counties, delivers up to 600 meals a day to individuals in New Haven County, and supplies a meal to at least 3,300 unique individuals during the course of the year.

More than 20,000 seniors rely on Meals on Wheels in Connecticut.

Alan Mathis, president and CEO of LifeBridge, said funding for a meal has only gone up a scant 10 cents over the last five years.

The average cost of a meal they deliver for seniors is about $5.74.

DeLauro said despite an increase in funding for 2018, the entirety of the Meals on Wheels program is being threatened because the upcoming budget isn’t keeping up with demand.

And Meals on Wheels does a lot more than feed Connecticut seniors.

In many cases, it wards off shifting the expense of the senior onto the state by allowing them to remain in their homes and use the limited resources they have for other basic expenses, such as rent, utilities and medical expenses.

Even for those seniors who may be not strapped for cash, the program helps in other ways by removing barriers for those with mobility issues or who are unable to prepare their own meals.

So it is puzzling that the government is not doing more even as more seniors crowd the landscape. Here’s an idea.

Many towns and cities are providing free breakfast and lunch to all students.

In Ansonia, the meals are provided as part of the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program through the Community Eligibility Provision. Payment is made by the state.

In New Haven, it is programs such as End Hunger Connecticut, which provides kids with a free meals all summer .

In addition, it seems every nonprofit and even some businesses are pitching in to help feed hungry people.

Maybe organizations such as these and others can pitch in and help Meals on Wheels.

After all, seniors were once children, too.