Tuesday through Thursday, the Gill-Montague Senior Center is a place to congregate for lunch for about 20 area seniors, who schedule their day around the nutritious meal and the chance to see friends. However, with cuts proposed by the governor, there may not be as much to go around next year.
The budget proposed by the governor would cut about $1.5 million from the Elder Nutrition Program, which would bring state funding for the program to $4.8 million. For Franklin County Home Care, which provides services to senior citizens, this could translate to a $36,000 cut to its meals program for seniors, taking about 5,000 meals off the table next year. That’s about a 3.2 percent drop from the number of meals served now.
“The meals program has been a foundation service that allows seniors to stay in their homes,” said Franklin County Home Care Executive Director Roseann Martoccia.
Across Franklin County, there were about 1,600 seniors who received 155,000 meals last year. Funding comes from both the state and federal governments. A majority of these were delivered by Meals on Wheels and the rest were part of meals programs at area senior centers.