A city program that has provided free meals to seniors across Los Angeles will end in August after a City Council committee voted Wednesday not to extend funding.
The Emergency Rapid Response Senior Meals Program is under the jurisdiction of the City of Los Angeles Department of Aging and was first established in response to growing food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Revolution Foods has partnered with the city to deliver free meals to the homes of seniors who sign up for the program five days a week. The company says it has seen an influx of more than 800 seniors requesting home meals since March, and has a waiting list of more than 1,400 people wanting to join the program.
But with the city facing a budget deficit this year and trying to cut costs, the group fears thousands of seniors facing significant social and economic hardships could end up without food.
“Approximately 40 percent of low-income California seniors age 60 and older experience food insecurity,” Revolution Foods said in a letter to the City Council, noting that Los Angeles has the highest food-insecure population in the country.
The mayor’s original proposed budget would have cut $5.15 million from the Department of Aging, and even after the City Council reallocated $2.7 million to the Department of Aging, the net reduction would be $2.45 million, reducing the size of the program.
Officials with the city’s Department of Aging also reiterated at a Budget, Finance and Innovation Committee meeting Wednesday that the program is not adequately funded.
Department officials added that they are referring people currently using the program to alternative programs, such as congregate meal programs run by the state of California and home-delivered meal programs.
But Revolution Foods CEO Dominic Engles said these alternative programs would have certain criteria, including strictly limiting participation to “homebound” seniors.
“Los Angeles is a uniquely car-centric city, and many seniors who do not qualify as ‘homebound’ are unable to drive or safely walk the distances necessary to get their daily meals,” Engles explained, noting that these seniors are not eligible for alternative programs.