4/19/2023 0 Comments Sure cuts a lot program![]() The Brattleboro Senior Meals’ nutrition program serves about 130 individuals via Meals on Wheels annually and also serves weekday congregant lunches at the Senior Center. 1, the program’s funding capped at $169,570 - creating a $45,070 shortfall. 30, Brattleboro Senior Meals received just over $214,640. In the federal fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. During the same period since 2018, home-delivered meal costs have more than doubled,” he said. “We have continued to deplete these carry-forward funds, which help to support the meal sites. “We have pursed grants but those don’t support our bottom line.” “Those carry-forward amounts have diminished over time, and our costs continue to increase,” Boutwell continued. “We’ve been working with meal sites to trim their meal rosters by 25 percent, which certainly amounts to a budget cut,” he said, acknowledging the difficulty.īoutwell explained that funding is “based on a complex equation the takes census numbers and area demographics into account to equitably distribute funding across all five area agencies on aging.”ĭuring this same period, funding for Age Well, in northwest Vermont, increased by 8.75 percent, he said, while Senior Solutions’ budgets “have been supported for several years on the leftover funds from various specific state and federal grants we receive.” The nutrition contracts constitute 22 percent of the operating budget, so Boutwell called that program “one of the areas we had to look at when considering reductions.” Our hope is that funding will increase in the future, but we may need more reductions over the next couple years if funding does not permanently improve.” He said that Senior Solutions has had to “implement reductions in our budget to reduce significant deficits. I’ve cut one half-time position and one full-time director position to half-time and made some other position reductions that will save us some money.” “I’ve had to make cuts not only to senior meal programs, but I’ve also cut staff and raises. “Those dollars help fund all our programs,” Boutwell said. Senior Solutions’ executive director Mark Boutwell said his agency, based in Springfield, has also been affected, receiving just a 1.5 percent - or $29,614 - increase in funding since 2018, forcing him to make cuts. “It has not impacted diners and meal recipients so far, and we’re hoping they won’t be impacted.”įederal and state money comes to Brattleboro Senior Meals through the Older Americans Act, distributed to Windham and Windsor counties’ meal preparers through Senior Solutions (formerly known as the Council on Aging for Southeastern Vermont), which made the cut. “We only found out about this six weeks ago, so it still has us scrambling,” executive director Cynthia Fisher said this week. BRATTLEBORO-A $45,070 funding cut to Brattleboro Senior Meals has providers concerned and looking for ways to make up the shortfall without affecting seniors who rely on the program.
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