When it comes to a hot meal, 1,300 seniors in Fort Bend County and Waller County depend on Fort Bend Seniors with its Meals on Wheels program.
"There are some seniors that have to look at utilities," Fort Bend Seniors executive director Doug Simpson said. "Is it medicine? It's very critical for many of our seniors."
Last year, Fort Bend Seniors leaders said it provided more than 425,000 meals. A number that's in jeopardy for next year because they said they recently learned their federal funding was cut in half. Simpson said it's going from $1.8 million to $900,000.
"It was tough because at the end of the time before I did any numbers in my head, I knew what this meant was less meals are going to be in the community," Simpson said.
Faced with fewer dollars, Simpson said starting next year, they've decided to deliver five meals a week instead of seven.
"It's across the board," Simpson explained. "I talked to people from Dallas. I've talked to people from San Antonio, Midland-Odessa, it's across the board."
IM Houston said it also found out its Meals on Wheels program serving Galveston County and Harris County lost half $500,000. So far, a spokesperson told ABC13 they are able to make up the difference with donations.
Neither organization could tell us exactly why there's less money. It comes from the federal government but is distributed through the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
A H-GAC spokesperson told us that during the pandemic, Meals on Wheels programs received more money from COVID relief bills. The extra money is no longer there, and organizations are getting pre-pandemic figures.
It's a lower amount than organizations expected, and Fort Bend Seniors hopes it doesn't go further than fewer meals, dropping clients, or adding a wait list.
"That's going to be a last-ditch effort," Simpson said. "Hopefully, we can get some community support and keep this thing going as it is."
Simpson said the financial impacts are scheduled to hit them before the start of the year. However, with the holidays approaching, they're planning to keep the seven-day meals going before making the cut on Jan. 1.
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