Indianapolis news media reports last weekend indicating that Hamilton County Meals on Wheels was facing big problems over federal reductions
in the Community Block Grant program will not threaten the local program. Any reduction, apparently about $6,000, hurts but is not
critical to Meals on Wheels’ future.
County Director Beth Gehlhausen says a real challenge is the increasing number of folks who need financial assistance to pay for meals. The Meals on Wheels organization has a budget of $466,800 this year. About half of the clients pay for their meals at the rate of $7 per day. The other half need assistance.
The income to fund the budget comes from several sources including the Central Indiana Council on Aging, the various townships in the county, Medicare/Medicaid, the Block Grant program, individual contributions and others.
Four county hospitals and one health care center in the county are paid to provide the food which is then distributed on 17 routes by 420 volunteers. Most clients of Meals on Wheels get two meals a day, five days a week. Any county citizen who has physical or mental difficulty providing for their own meal preparation is eligible to participate. A bigger problem for Hamilton County non-profit assistance organizations is the possibility of the elimination of the Community Block Grant program provided by Congress each year. Hamilton County is getting $874,000.
The grant program is administered by the Noblesville Housing Authority. Christopher Allen, director of the authority, said that he is very concerned about the proposal to eliminate the program, but it is only a proposal of the national administration at the present time.
Congress will decide its fate.
A great deal of the overall block grant program goes toward creating affordable housing in the county. Hamilton County Area Neighborhood Development, known as HAND, gets this money for their several housing projects. Other non-profits sharing in the block grant include local food banks, legal clinics, Prevail, Salvation Army, Shepherd Center and Trinity Health Clinic.
Allen is currently compiling the number of individuals who receive assistance from one or another of the organizations aided by the block grant. Even though Hamilton County is assumed to be wealthy, he says the number will be easily “in the thousands.”