A representative for Meals on Wheels warned that Donald Trump’s proposed pause on federal funding to the organization will cause “panic” among senior citizens who will not know where their next meals are coming from.
After Monday’s announcement from the White House that all federal grants, loans and other types of financial assistance were being frozen until a review, a spokesperson for Meals on Wheels America said uncertainty was causing “chaos” for local distributors and seniors.
A federal judge on Tuesday on Tuesday lifted the freeze until February 3, but it’s uncertain what the ultimate resolution of a court fight over the policy would be.
“The uncertainty” on Monday was “creating chaos for local Meals on Wheels providers not knowing whether they should be serving meals today,” a spokesperson said in a statement to Huffpost. “Which unfortunately means seniors will panic not knowing where their next meals will come from,” the statement added.
In her first press conference on Tuesday, Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that no benefits to individuals would be affected by the freeze. However, as a national program, Meals on Wheels operates on federal grants that are given to local charities as well as donations from the public.
The Independent has reached out to the Trump administration to confirm that Meals on Wheels was not part of the plan to freeze funds.
Concerns echo those from Trump’s first term. Whereas the president’s 2017 budget outline did not directly target senior nutrition services, it did call for the elimination of several anti-poverty programs.
Meals on Wheels America, which represents over 5,000 home-meal delivery organizations across the country, said that such groups get about 35 percent of their funding from the federal government, Huffpost reported previously.
