Melissa Bailey File Photo
Lead Volunteer Melzetta Reed serves up daily lunch to Jeannette Green at the Dixwell/Newhallville Senior Center.
Seniors in Dixwell/Newhallville and the East Shore will continue to have access to affordable meat and potatoes beyond Feb. 1, after the city found a partial solution to sudden cutbacks to a state-run Meals on Wheels program.
The lunch programs at the city-run senior centers at 255 Goffe St. and 411 Townsend Ave. were originally slated to close on Feb. 1, after the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut, Inc. announced cuts to the state- and federally funded Elderly Nutrition Program. Last year, the program home-delivered over 100,000 “Meals on Wheels” to seniors in greater New Haven as well as over 170,000 meals to 21 “community cafés.”
There are five “community cafés” in New Haven: the Dixwell/Newhallville, East Rock, Atwater, and Bella Vista senior centers, as well as Casa Otoñal. Seniors can get meals there during the week for a suggested $2 donation.
FSW, Inc, the company that runs the Meals on Wheels program in the greater New Haven area, proposed eliminating four lunch programs: at the Dixwell/Newhallville and East Shore senior centers, and sites in Branford and West Haven.
The cuts, first reported in this Independent story, caused a wave of worry among seniors who rely on the program for hot lunches during the week.
This week, FSW announced it has struck a deal to save the lunch programs in Dixwell/Newhallville and East Shore, as well as in Branford. Starting Feb. 1, the sites will operate on a reduced schedule: Three days a week in Dixwell/Newhallville, two days a week in the East Shore, and four days in Branford, according to according to Bill Hass, FSW’s president and CEO.
He said FSW was able to save the two New Haven lunch sites because the city stepped forward to help. The city volunteered to have its senior center coordinators take the responsibilities of the meal coordinators, part-time FSW workers who are currently stationed at the senior centers to administer the meals. The FSW meal coordinator in West Haven will be laid off; the others will be reassigned within FSW, Hass said.
“FSW is kind of meeting the city half-way,” Hass said.
Other cuts remain as planned: The tea and coffee programs will be discontinued as of Feb. 1, and any new seniors requesting home-delivered meals will be put on a wait list.
Meanwhile, FSW is looking for other solutions.
“Our goal long-term is to try to restore service back to what we were doing before,” Hass said.
To do that, the Bridgeport-based social services organization is soliciting donations from the public.
FSW needs an extra $100,000 to avoid cutting back meal service, Hass said. The budget hole comes because Agency on Aging has a $137,777 shortfall in money compared to what FSW expended on the program last year. Reductions in program costs will make up the $37,777 difference.
If no more money is raised, FSW will serve 26,000 fewer home-delivered meals this year, and 23,000 fewer lunches to café sites like the Goffe Street senior center, Hass said. To donate, call Andrea Sanchez at 203 – 368-5567, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or visit the FSW website.
Every dollar will go directly to providing meals to the elderly, Hass said.