Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland is proud to participate in the national #SaveLunch for America’s Seniors campaign as countless seniors face waitlists for #MealsonWheels nationwide, and the number continues to escalate. In 2023, we delivered 1.4 million meals in central Maryland, but we must increase federal funding! We currently have more than 50 seniors waiting for service, and each time we lessen that number, more seniors requesting service are on that list.
We are one of the thousands of programs in this position. One in three of the more than 5,000 that exist across our country, Meals on Wheels programs across the country has a waiting list of hungry seniors who need to be fed but lack the funding to do anything about it.
With key negotiations on FY 2024 appropriations underway, I ask you to prioritize nutrition, health, and wellbeing of your senior constituents by providing at least $1,284,385,000 for the Older Americans Act (OAA) Nutrition Program in the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill. The OAA is the primary piece of legislation that Meals on Wheels programs in our state and nationwide rely on to deliver 230 million meals to 2.2 million seniors each year.
The problems of senior hunger, isolation, and poverty are growing in America: More than 10 million seniors are threatened by or experience hunger and 1 in 3 seniors live alone. Meals on Wheels has evidence-based solutions in place to address these issues for the growing population of our nation’s seniors, but robust funding is needed to meet the rising demand for these services. Over 80% of Meals on Wheels participants report that the services they receive improve their health, help them feel more secure and increase the amount of time they are able to age in place at home, improving quality of life and saving health care dollars. None of this would be possible without federal funding through the OAA.