Meals-On-Wheels Delivers More Than Just Food

31 March, 2025 – CAPE COD, MA – Meals-On-Wheels is a life save for its senior recipients, who often live alone. So far federal funding cuts have had minimal impact on Cape Cod's programs for seniors and vulnerable people, but what do our representatives anticipate?

What Is Senior Nutrition?

March is National Nutrition Month, and good nutrition is a pillar in being able to age at home. Meals-On-Wheels America, funded 1954, delivers ready meals to more than 2 million seniors across the us. Targeting senior hunger, the program is about more than food.

"One guy said it's a lifesaver for him because he is stuck in his house. He says 'if it wasn't for this I either couldn't stay here, or I wouldn't have any food." says Mark Kelleher, volunteer driver for Meals-On-Wheels in Harwich.

Mark has just returned from today's route to the kitchen at Harwich Community Center where the meals are delivered from. He has been a volunteer driver for three years. Once a week he delivers to 20 Harwich seniors. On 19 March he had two passengers in his car; State Sen. Julian Cyr and Representative Hadley Luddy came along for the ride.

Are Funding Cuts Impacting Seniors?

"The Meals-On-Wheels line item is something that I've championed in the Senate budget," says Sen. Cyr. "So we know how critical this program is. We're facing strong headwinds. We're worried about federal cuts to a whole host of services that provide essential care to older adults and a whole host of vulnerable people."

The regional aging services access point, Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands say almost 2,500 Cape Codders received Meals-On-Wheels last year. This year, ESCCI believe they will serve 390,000 meals, an increase of 100,000 compared with 2019. They're also anticipating a budget deficit of $3 million for the fiscal year 2025. About 95% of their budget comes from federal funding, some comes from donations. The rest is a small reserve to cover delays in reimbursements. ESCCI states very hard decisions would have to be made if heavy funding cuts would become a reality.

"I feel like everything is on the line right now, so it's a really critical time to speak up and especially for seniors to speak up about their needs and make sure that we're not cutting services for people that are trying to age in place," says Rep. Luddy.

"We're really proud of Massachusetts for the system we've been able to build," adds Sen. Cyr. "We gotta work to strengthen it, of course. But what's being talked about at the federal level is simply catastrophic.

Can the state fill federal funding gaps?

Sen. Cyr says that would be impossible. "There's no way that Massachusetts will be able to fill these funding gaps. Massachusetts receives over $16 billion in our budget from the federal government, we just don't have the resources to fill it," he says.

According to data from the Cape Cod Commission, the population on the Outer and Lower Cape is significantly older than the region and the state, "ranging from 17 to 23 years older than the state median age." Meals-On-Wheels states that 14% of Massachusetts' seniors experience limited or uncertain access to adequate food, and that seniors make up a fourth of the state's population – 25% of them live alone. One of them is 79-year old David Ricketts in Wellfleet

"I get vegetarian meals, so it's allowed me to continue to eat well. I can do some shopping for myself, but it's t is not easy. So this is a life save," David says.

David was a volunteer driver for Meals on Wheels for several decades, first in New York 1978, following volunteering in Wellfleet and Truro, before finding himself in need of the service in 2017.

"So I saw the effectiveness in a rural area like Truro and Wellfleet," he says. "You become friends with the people you deliver to, just as I become friends with the drivers here."

In rural upstate New York in the 70s and 80s houses were few and far between. "So I saw it firsthand where people living on their own back in the woods," David says. "And I've walked in to houses where people have been on the floor and I'm the first person who saw them since they fell out of bed that night."

How Is Home Delivered Food A Life Save?

Because of prostate cancer and three fractured vertebrae, David relies on home delivered food for all of his meals. Federal funding cuts is something he thinks about often.

"I worry for everybody," he says. "I think it's something  that should be an automatic obligation of a society, that you take care of those people who are less fortunate than, for whatever reason."

When asked what they would like to say to vulnerable Cape Codders worried about funding cuts, Rep. Luddy answered:

"I guess I'd say we're all extremely worried, and that it's a really serious time, and we're doing everything that we certainly can on the state level. And I think it's really time for our community members to be coming together to also look at every possible way in which we either can reinforce our safety nets or find alternative ways of doing things if we do face cuts," she says.

"But it's hard to minimize the seriousness of the situation that we're facing."

How Will Funding Cuts Impact Meals-On-Wheels?

Meals On Wheels is growing with wait lists on Mid and Lower Cape. On March 27th the US Department of Health and Human Services announced a "reorganization of the Administration for Community Living." Its programs, which include home delivered meals, will be split across other agencies. ESCCI states "at this time [the government is] saying that the changes will not affect the delivery of services, but that could change. While we don't know what will happen with the government funding over the coming months, we do know community support and awareness will be critical in enabling ESCCI manage any disruptions of services that are essential to all of us who are aging on the Cape and Islands.