Homepage
-- Programs and Services -- Contact Information Meals on Wheels should be, but often isn’t, a priority
It is shameful that every day in America, in the richest and most powerful nation on earth, senior citizens are going hungry. According to a recent study by the National Council on the Aging, the number of senior citizens who suffer from hunger is growing rapidly. Today, more than three quarters of a million Americans over 65 who are living alone are malnourished.
The elderly were once the poorest of the poor in our society. But we made a firm commitment – through Social Security in the 1930’s and Medicare in the 1960’s – that growing old should not mean troubled years of poverty and illness. In 1972, Congress created the Meals on Wheels program as part of the Older Americans Act, in response to disturbing new evidence at that time that due to their poverty and isolation, many senior citizens were suffering from serious nutritional deficiencies, and that lack of good nutrition was contributing to their poor health.
Today, Meals on Wheels provides more than 140 million meals a year to over 1 million seniors. More than 35,000 Massachusetts elders receive a total of 5 million meals each year, an average of about 3 meals a week. The program has broad-based community support. The many volunteers who deliver meals to the homebound have greatly expanded the reach of the Act, stretching existing resources and delivering meals to seniors in need.
Today, Meals on Wheels is more important than ever. It’s essential for homebound seniors who have little or no other access to food, and it deserves sufficient resources to meet the need.
Few, if any, public officials say openly that they don’t support nutrition programs for senior citizens, but it rarely ranks as a priority in national policy. The prevailing attitude seems to be that local governments and private charities can fill the gap. But that leaves out large numbers of seniors who need the food delivered to their homes, as Meals on Wheels does. Often, it makes all the difference in their decision whether or not to move into a nursing home.
A budget is a document that should reflect a nation’s basic values and priorities. That’s not this President’s budget — and it hasn’t been for the last four years. There’s nothing compassionate about it. President Bush refused to support even an inflationary increase in Elderly Nutrition Programs, including Meals on Wheels. With rising costs each year, running in place means falling behind.
Congress can do better, and so can America. Meals on Wheels deserves the resources it needs to ensure the older years are truly golden years.