Meals On Wheels Is A Crucial Service For Pets And Their Humans

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The Trump Administration's proposed budget cuts advise eliminating Community Development Block Grants, which many of our country's Meals on Wheels programs rely on for support, placing our country's most vulnerable citizens and their animals at great risk.

Meals On Wheels has provided a crucial service to Americans since it was initiated by a small group of compassionate Philadelphians in 1954. Now in operation all across the U.S., the program not only provides nutritious meals to the elderly and impoverished, but **many also offer free pet food for low-income seniors as well**.

It was volunteers who first noticed Meals on Wheels clients giving their food away to their animals, deciding they would rather go hungry than let their pets suffer. Working with shelters and regional animal organizations, Meals on Wheels is now able to support animal-loving seniors with free pet food, along with nutritious meals for themselves, so no one goes hungry.

In one San Diego program, volunteers collect 3,000 pounds of donated dry food and about 3,200 cans of wet food for dogs and cats each month. The funding to support programs like this, however, is in jeopardy of being slashed drastically by 2018.

**There are currently around 5,000 Meals on Wheels programs operating in the U.S.**, some which offer added benefits like senior center meal programs, home repair services, and transportation. These services lend a clinically proven lifeline to those who need it most. In a randomized test for Meals on Wheels America, a scientist from Brown University concluded that seniors gain mental and physical benefit from regular visits, possibly even keeping them out of the nursing home, and their animals in loving hands.

The program is literally a lifesaver for the elderly and their pets.

"It's not just a meal, but a wellness check," Sandra Noe, executive director of Meals on Wheels of Northwest Indiana told USA Today. "That volunteer, that driver is able to tune into whether that person's health is failing, or if they’ve fallen or can't get out of their chair. And we're delivering relief from isolation, and we're delivering relief to their family as well."

The elimination of Community Development Block Grants by way of a 16 percent cut to the Health and Human Services budget would not only burden communities already trying to fight poverty, it would make it impossible for some Meals on Wheels programs to continue serving the elderly and their animals.

This myopic attempt at trimming the budget hurts those who need the most help of all.

**Sign below to tell Director of the Office of Management and Budget and President Trump to reconsider the proposed budget cuts and continue to fund Community Development Block Grants and Meals on Wheels!**