State agency reverses Tarrant County Meals on Wheels funding cut
The Brief
Tarrant County Meals on Wheels will no longer face $450,000 in funding cuts.
The cut would have affected five programs that assisted the organization's clients.
The Tarrant County operation is unsure why the cut was reversed by the state.
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas - State Health and Human Services Department officials have reversed course on a $450,000 funding cut to Tarrant County Meals on Wheels.
It would have cut five services, including a program called "Home Meds" that aimed to keep any harmful food or drug reactions among clients receiving meals at bay.
Other services to be impacted would have included nutrition counseling, social reassurance, participant assessment and transportation.
The new cut would have been in addition to a $1.6 million cut from October, as well as confusion caused by federal funding freezes earlier this year.
Funding cut reversal
What they're saying
We spoke with Philip Gonzalez, a spokesperson for Tarrant County Meals on Wheels, about the reversal.
"We really don't know the heart of why it happened, it just did," Gonzalez said. "But at the same time, we're glad whoever was in charge decided to say, 'hey, there's a lot of people going to be affected by this, and let's go ahead and restore it and make sure the seniors, especially here in Tarrant County, are taken care of.'"
Gonzalez said the organization had no control over the potential loss of the funding, which he says would have affected multiple services, including wellness check-ins and client transportation to and from activity centers.
"The transportation issue of getting all of our seniors to our activity centers where they can socialize and get that meal every day, specifically those two," Gonzalez said. "There were five total, but we were really concerned about all five. It would have been a tremendous setback."
Why the change?
The Tarrant County operation received communication on Monday from the Area Agency on Aging, the entity that disperses the federal funding which is funneled through the state.
There's not much clarity about why federal funding was restored, but the notice does confirm the following:
"They will proceed with the full release of FY2025 funding to ensure services continue without interruption […] While the exact timing of the funding release remains uncertain, we've been informed that more details will be available in the coming weeks."
What you can do
For information on how you can volunteer with Tarrant County Meals on Wheels, click here.
The Source
Information for this article comes from Tarrant County Meals on Wheels and the Area Agency on Aging.
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