MEALS ON WHEELS CUT

IS FALSE ECONOMY

Dear Editor:

As a Silver Haired Legislator representative for Newberry County, I appreciate this opportunity to use The Newberry Observer editorial section to bring attention to state funding for the Meals on Wheels program for elderly South Carolinians.

Governor Mark Sanford's proposal to cut state funding for Meals on Wheels is false economy. Nearly 5,500 low-income South Carolina seniors are served by Meals on Wheels. The program had a budget of about $11 million last year, with more than $8 million coming from the federal government and $2.9 million allocated by the state in matching funds.

Last year, the state contribution was funded through a one-time supplemental spending bill. Senior advocate groups throughout the state and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who oversees the Office on Aging, have asked lawmakers to make the $2.9 million allocation permanent to ensure that 20,000 elderly residents will continue to be served across the state.

Governor Sanford's budget proposal would cut the $2.9 billion; meaning 5,500 senior citizens could lose those meals. For many low-income seniors, Meals on Wheels provides the only meal they get each day and some attention from the people who deliver them. Cutting the budget means some seniors will have to go back on the waiting list for meals. Those who receive the meals are the most vulnerable senior citizens. They cannot prepare the meals themselves, or they don't have caretakers who can prepare meals for them. For many seniors, that one meal can be the only thing allowing them to live independently in their homes. Without it, they would have to move to nursing homes.

Nursing home placements cost an average of $45,000 a year. Undernourished seniors also are more likely to fall, a primary reason for hospital admissions among the elderly, and an overnight hospital stay for people 60 and over costs Medicare about $25,000. Providing meals to homebound seniors is less expensive than paying for nursing home or hospital care. It costs less to feed a senior citizen one meal a day for a year than for that senior to spend one night in a hospital. Newberry County Council on Aging serves 196 home delivered a day. Eighteen are state supplemental funding.

Senior activists, the Silver Haired Legislature, the Lieutenant Governor's office, and AARP are asking legislators to fund the additional meal expense annually and are asking Sanford to reconsider the cut.

The Silver Haired Legislature and AARP are encouraging their members in SC to contact their legislators and ask to keep the funding in the budget. We also encourage citizens and seniors to contact local legislators. State lawmakers need to find funds to create a permanent Meals on Wheels program. If funding is not put back into the budget in June, 5,500 senior citizens will come off the meals programs and go back on the expanding waiting list. We don't want that to happen!

Margaret Brackett

Silver Haired Legislator, Central Midlands Caucus

Newberry