CITY MAY CUT MEALS FOR ELDERLY; BUDGET CAN'T MEET GROWING DEMAND.Byline: Patrick McGreevy and Eric ERIC Educational Research Information Clearinghouse ERIC Educational Resources Information Center ERIC ERISA Industry Committee ERIC Epidemiologic Research and Information Center (Durham, NC) Wahlgren Daily News Staff Writers Hundreds of senior citizens in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and elsewhere in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. face the loss of hot lunches because of budget shortfalls and the growing numbers of elderly people using the program, Los Angeles officials announced Wednesday. City officials also announced that the suggested price for the meal will increase from $1.25 to $2. Faced with a $460,000 reduction in state funding for senior services, city officials were scrambling See scramble. to try to find a way to avoid reductions in the hot-meal program offered at 117 nutrition sites throughout Los Angeles. At the Wilkinson Center in Northridge, where an average of 118 and as many as 170 senior citizens eat lunch daily, city parks officials announced Wednesday that only 70 meals will be offered daily beginning Oct. 14. Similar announcements were made Wednesday at city nutrition centers in West Los Angeles
Mary Braunwarth of the city Parks and Recreation Department said her office has been told by the city Department of Aging that it must cut the number of meals offered to senior citizens by about 15 percent. In the San Fernando Valley, where 61,000 lunches were served last year, the cuts could require the city to scale back to 45,500 meals this year, Braunwarth said. ``The amount of funding we get for each of the sites has been reduced,'' Braunwarth said. The city parks agency runs nutrition sites on a contract with the city Department of Aging, which gets its funds annually from the state, which in turn is dependent on federal funding each year. ``Unfortunately for the city of Los Angeles
Smith said the situation is further complicated by the growing demand for senior citizen lunches. ``The point is, the senior population is growing and the need is growing,'' Smith said, noting the Older Americans Act money is allocated to states based on 1990 census data. The contract with the parks agency calls for 85 lunches to be served daily at the Wilkinson Recreation Center, but the larger demand has resulted in many more lunches being served. ``What happens if you do that over the course of a year is you run out of money,'' Smith said. Just two months into the fiscal year, Smith said it was determined that nutrition centers could not continue to serve more meals than contracted without depleting funds for the meal program. Smith said that as a manager, she understood the parks agency's decision to begin scaling back meals at some centers. But ``the humanitarian part of me says it was not good because people have to eat,'' she said. Braunwarth and Smith said the City Council is looking at the possibility of dipping into the city general fund to make up any shortfall Shortfall The amount by which the capital required to fulfill a financial obligation exceeds available capital. Notes: Shortfall risk is often combated with an efficient hedging strategy created by a fund, group, institution, or individual. in state funds. However, Bill Nicholson Bill Nicholson can refer to different people:
``A lot of people will be turned away. A lot of people are going to get hurt,'' said Nicholson, a retired railroad railroad or railway, form of transportation most commonly consisting of steel rails, called tracks, on which freight cars, passenger cars, and other rolling stock are drawn by one locomotive or more. manager. He said 150 to 170 senior citizens usually take meals at the Wilkinson Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when bingo bingo Game of chance played with cards having a grid of numbered squares corresponding to numbered balls drawn at random. When a number on the card is drawn, the players cover that number (should they have it); the game is won by covering a certain number of squares in a row games are held. In addition to providing nutritional meals to senior citizens on fixed incomes, the hot lunch program provides many senior citizens with a chance for social interaction that they need but otherwise might not get, said Nicholson, 73. ``I do not believe in cutting back on any programs for senior citizens,'' he said. Nicholson questioned the city's priorities, citing the $70 million in subsidies proposed for a sports arena in contrast with the city's inability to plug the $460,000 funding gap for senior citizens. Councilman Hal Bernson Hal Bernson served as Los Angeles City Councilman for the 12th district. He was chair of the Transportation Committee. Prior to being on the City Council, he served in the Navy. Preceded by Robert M. , who represents the area, did not return calls for comment on the problem. However, Councilman Mike Feuer said he has asked the Department of Aging to find a way to head off the reduction of meals. ``I am riveted on this issue,'' Feuer said. ``I am pushing to have the department explore every possible avenue of getting resources to make sure the cuts don't take effect.'' |
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