Senior nutrition programs face funding disruption from DOGE (March 12, 2025 )
March 12, 2025 — Meals on Wheels programs and senior centers across the country began facing funding uncertainty as the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) pushed cuts affecting the federal pipeline for senior nutrition services. Reports from Montana and other states indicated that monthly contract payments to senior centers were being delayed or interrupted.
Nationally, Meals on Wheels programs serve more than 250 million meals a year to roughly 2 million seniors, many of whom have limited mobility and for whom delivered meals or senior center programs represent their primary social contact. Federal funding flows through the Older Americans Act and is distributed via state agencies, making the programs highly vulnerable to federal disruption.
Congressional Democrats warned that proposed cuts to the Social Services Block Grant, SNAP, Medicaid, and SSI would compound the disruption. Advocates pointed out that senior nutrition programs cost less than alternatives: the annual cost of Meals on Wheels is roughly equivalent to a single day in a hospital or ten days in a nursing home.