Columbus Meals on Wheels safe from federal funding freeze: CEO

Yahoo

29-01-2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's federal funding freeze just before it was set to go into effect Tuesday. The temporary pause comes after Trump issued a funding freeze for federal grants and loans overnight in a vaguely worded memo from the Office of Management and Budget.
More than $3 trilllion in federal funding is at stake, but organizations across the country will have to wait until at least Monday to see if they will be impacted. The judge who placed a temporary pause on the funding freeze has called a hearing for 11 a.m. Monday.
While no federal funding has been pulled yet, chaos has stormed through organizations around the country, including in central Ohio.
How potential federal grant pause could impact central Ohio organizations
'I got the first notification from a group that sends us some news last night about 1 a.m.,' LifeCare Alliance President and CEO Chuck Gehring said. 'When I saw that, my stomach dropped. You know, it just scared me horribly.'
LifeCare Alliance provides many programs for central Ohioans in need but is known mostly for Meals on Wheels.
'Our Meals on Wheels are up over 90% from pre-COVID numbers and we, through our partnerships with our counties, especially Franklin County, have continued to take everybody that qualifies,' Gehring said. 'You got to qualify. But, you know, we've been able to service people and we are probably, I can't tell you this for sure, but I'm pretty close that in the top 100 markets in the United States of America, we're probably the only ones without waiting lists for Meals on Wheels.'
Meals on Wheels relies heavily on federal funding, which led to Gehring's concern.
'It's critical funding for our programming, especially the Meals on Wheels program,' he said. 'For this year, that'd be $3 million to us. What that does, it pays for literally hundreds of thousands of meals. We do about 1.8 million Meals on Wheels a year out of here. And it would, it would affect if that money went away for a year, it would easily affect a couple thousand consumers.'
Since the initial memo was sent from the White House, further clarification was given this afternoon. An afternoon memo from the White House said, 'Programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, small business funds, farmer funding, Pell Grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused.'
'I was very concerned about it last night at 1 a.m. when I first saw the news, because I didn't know what it was going to do to us, but I'm less concerned now,' Gehring said.
In the midst of all the uncertainty surrounding if they would have funding or not, Gehring said the one constant was the organization's dedication to serving thousands of people in central Ohio
'Whether the funding was frozen or not, we'll keeping going,' he said. 'We're going to keep serving and if anybody's watching me talk here, don't worry about your meals. They will continue to come tomorrow and every day. We would never abandon our people.'
The White House gave reasoning for the funding freeze during a press briefing by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
'It is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,' Leavitt said.
The target of the funding freeze are issues like gender ideology, foreign aid, and environmental agreements. This leads Gehring to believe his agency will be OK. He understands the importance of ensuring taxpayer money is going to good use, and his organization knows they are under a microscope.
'I've counted seven different audits we get a year here, so some of this money is highly protected by the federal government,' he said.
Gehring also knows the value of the service they provide. Providing meals, transportation, deliveries, and other services for the elderly who cannot do those things on their own is vital.
'For each person we keep independent and in their own home, where they want to be one person for one year, we save Ohio taxpayers and federal taxpayers $90,000 on average,' he said. 'We probably saved the state and the feds at least $3 billion with a B versus Medicaid, paying for all our people to go to assisted living here and so there's a huge return on this investment.'
The federal judge who paused the funding freeze will hear arguments next Monday and decide on a temporary restraining order at that time. Meanwhile, organizations across the country will be seeking clear guidance on if they are impacted by the funding freeze.
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