Some seniors getting less food because of budget cuts

Jean Soich sees no downside to her life. She’s 87 years old, gets meals on wheels every day – and thinks she has it made.

“They even bring a little extra sometimes and it’s wonderful. You seem to know the person and you know there is someone coming to visit you for a few minutes. It’s wonderful,” she said.

Soich joins the 11 million other seniors all over America getting meals distributed to them.

Because of sequestration, though, more older Americans will miss meals and other services. For years, funding for The Older Americans Act stood still at about $2 billion, while the elderly population continued to grow.

Think of it like this. The size of the pie stays the same, but the slices keep getting smaller and smaller and smaller.

Fortunately for the Coachella Valley, “The Riverside County Office on Aging put together funding from all sorts of funding streams so the impact was not as bad as other parts of the country. They brought in state funds, nutrition funds,” Ginny Foat from Meals on Wheels said.

That, and donations, keep the meals coming. Money runs out, though, and immobile seniors cannot get to food banks.

“Awful. Don’t even say it to me. I don’t want to think of a thing like that,” Soich said.

Meals on wheels is her only lifeline.

“We have to raise almost $200,000 a year currently to have the privilege of doing this federal program. If they cut it. Then we’ll have to raise $300,000 a year,” Foat said.

So seniors, such as Soich, need you to continue to donate.

“I hope they continue forever. That I’m around,” Soich said.