Some senior dining programs on Cape Cod are being scaled back due to cuts to a federal grant program.
That's according to Laura Roskos, who works for Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands.
"We're going to close our senior dining sites in Mashpee and Barnstable, and we're going to pull back in Brewster," she said. "We had more sites across the Cape pre-pandemic, but the meal sites and Falmouth and Dennis have never reopened, and now we won't be reopening them unless the funding situation changes."
The Mashpee and Barnstable senior dining programs will end on March 3. Senior dining services will still be offered in Brewster, but less often than before.
At these sites, seniors can access nutritious meals at no or low costs—the suggested donation is usually $4 per meal.
Elder Services typically receives around $200,000 dollars from the federal grant program known as the Nutrition Services Incentive Program. But this year, they'll receive much less funding, if they get any at all. Because the senior dining programs don't have very high attendance, they were the first to go.
Roskos says these cuts were not part of the recent funding cuts and freezes to federal grant money by the Trump administration (these cuts have been in the works since last year). But she's also bracing for the impact of potential future cuts.
"We know this decision was made quite a while ago," Roskos said. "We also know that there's going to be some additional pressure on our nutrition program because of shortfalls in the state budget. We don't know what's going to happen next year. Obviously, all sorts of cuts would hit our nutrition program in all sorts of ways."
For seniors who will be impacted by these cuts, Roskos offered an alternative:
"Folks who are going to senior dining can sign up for Meals on Wheels for the nutrition," she said. "That won't get them the company and the social good time, but it will get them the food."
For more information about senior nutrition programs on the Cape and Islands, visit the Elder Services website or call 508-394-4630.
