Free Weekly Meals In Jeopardy For Thousands Of People Over 60 In LA

About 5,800 people over the age of 60 in Los Angeles will lose access to free weekly meals delivered to their home this summer unless the city council finds more funding for the program.

The Emergency Rapid Response Senior Meals Program, which was initially created during the COVID-19 pandemic to fight food insecurity, has stopped accepting applicants and will run out of money by August, or mid-September at the latest.

Councilmember Heather Hutt introduced a motion to keep the program up and running for at least the next fiscal year, but it hit a roadblock in the L.A. City Council’s Budget, Finance, and Innovation Committee meeting last week — and time is running out.

The Department of Aging confirmed that the program, which also has about 1,400 people on the waitlist, will come to a close if no action is taken, and the city council leaves for summer break on July 3.

About the program

People who participate get five free prepared meals delivered to their front door each week. Anyone who is 60 or older, lives in the city of L.A., and has a need for additional food support were eligible to apply.

David Greenwald, who lives in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood and has been receiving meals through the program for nearly a year, told LAist the delivery service has saved him time and money as he recovers from a major stroke.

“It's not age which is my problem, but unfortunately, just the fact that my physical movements are rather limited,” he said. “I walk with a cane and I have limited use of my left hand, so for example, peeling fruit is quite impossible.”

Sheila Cage, who lives in affordable single-room-occupancy housing in downtown L.A. and has been receiving meals since last fall, told LAist the program has been a “blessing” for her and other older adults in her community.

“I thank God for the meals, you know, because I get limited food stamps and it seems like when I go to the store once a month, it's like I have to tap into other sources,” she said. “These meals also help people to live … giving them the nourishment that they need.”

Dozens of people wrote how the program has helped them in public comments, including Susan Richey, 76, who said she never expected old age to be a battle between buying food and paying rent.

“Without this program, I will seriously try to move out of the area where my friends and church are located,” Richey wrote. “I'm beginning to feel my challenges in old age are getting more difficult and the anxiety and stress this causes me is sapping my energy and will-power.”

Sonia Smith, 83, wrote that the program has been a “literal lifesaver” for her and her 87-year-old husband, who requires around-the-clock care and supervision.

“His full time caregiving need severely limits my ability to leave the home to do grocery shopping and it eats up the time and energy I need to prepare and clean up 3 meals a day,” Smith wrote in a public comment. “This program has helped to lessen my load so that I may continue to keep my husband living at home with me.”

What the vendors say

Elizabeth Tulasi, director of strategic partnerships at Everytable, a vendor partner for the program, said during public comment at the committee meeting that the company has offered to reduce the price of the meals they provide in hopes of keeping the program going.

“The Rapid Response Senior Meal Program was designed to serve our elders who fall between the cracks, meaning they cannot attend in-person dining and do not qualify for regular home delivery,” she said.

Revolution Foods, another vendor partner for the program, reported that it received more than 800 requests for meals over the past few months. Many were from people with significant health, mobility, and transportation challenges that make it difficult for them to get to senior centers for congregate meals.

In a letter to the L.A. City Council members, Dominic Engels, the CEO of Revolution Foods, wrote that there’s a large need for these meal programs in Los Angeles that hasn’t gone away since the pandemic. He added that it’s only grown because of inflation.

“If the Emergency Rapid Response Senior Meals Program ends in August, many seniors with significant social and economic needs will be left without meals,” according to the letter reviewed by LAist. “The demand we have witnessed is enormous, as evidenced by a waitlist of more than 1,400 seniors to receive these meals.”

Steven Holguin, the vice president of business development for Revolution Foods, told LAist that losing the program would have a dramatic impact on a population that largely lives on a limited budget.

“The seniors are pretty much, right now, our most vulnerable population within the city, and we're essentially making them that much more vulnerable,” he said.

Where the L.A. City Council stands

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield recommended several amendments to Hutt’s motion that were ultimately approved in a 4-0 vote, with Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky absent.

City officials have been directed to report back on the status of the Emergency Rapid Response Senior Meals Program, the criteria used to determine who is eligible, and if there isn’t one, instruct the Department of Aging to propose criteria, look into other sources of funding, and other available meal programs.

“We had a very tough budget year, we had to make choices, and we chose to continue our senior congregate meal program and our delivery program that we've had in the past, and keep that going while we're cutting to the bone every other city service,” Blumenfield told LAist in a follow-up interview.

Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said during the committee meeting that they obviously want to make meals accessible to as many people as possible, but there’s a point the city needs to get off the boat of COVID investments.

“They’re unsustainable,” she said. “They were never intended to be a permanent solution, and we have to really make maximum leverage of a lot of the additional supports, transportations, and whatnot.”

Rodriguez told LAist that she recognizes that there’s a lot of older adults living with food insecurity, and she wants to make sure their needs are met, “but the only way to do that is to make sure that we're being really prudent with the resources that we have.”

She said her goal is to find a path forward for the program, but it can’t be without checks to make sure the city is getting the most out of the meals and money.

“If we can offer it to a much smaller degree, and offset that from the allocations and the other programs so that we can meet the need, I'm OK with that, so that we can continue it in some form,” she said. “But we just can't continue it to the scale that it is today, because we’re not financially able to do it.”

The Department of Aging did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.