San Francisco's Meals on Wheels program faces uncertainty over Trump funding freeze
The Brief
The federal funding freeze would impact grants, loans, and aid. Nonprofit groups that receive federal dollars would be among those affected.
The San Francisco chapter of Meals on Wheels said the funding freeze would cut $3 million from their program.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the freeze minutes before it was scheduled to take effect.
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a push from President Donald Trump to pause federal funding while his administration conducts an across-the-board ideological review to uproot progressive initiatives.
What we know
U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan blocked the funding freeze only minutes before it was scheduled to take effect. The administrative stay, prompted by a lawsuit brought by nonprofit groups that receive federal money, lasts until Monday afternoon. Another court hearing is scheduled that morning to consider the issue.
If the $3 trillion freeze goes through, it will impact federal grants, loans, and some aid. Federal assistance to people, including Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, welfare benefits, student loans, and scholarships, would not be affected, according to the White House. However, several states reported that their Medicaid portals were down on Tuesday.
Local perspective
When the Office of Management and Budget first announced the pause, it caused panic and confusion for millions, including Bay Area nonprofits such as the San Francisco Meals on Wheels program.
Bill Redican, who was forced into retirement by a stroke, is able to live on his own, thanks in part to Meals on Wheels. Even though he is better off physically than many other clients, cooking is out of the question.
"I really trust the food. It's very well-balanced and well proportioned," Redican said.
Meals on Wheels helps enable millions of American seniors to stay at home.
RELATED: Thousands of meals delivered to Bay Area seniors with limited mobility, funds
"With someone with less ability, it's unthinkable that they can manage on their own," said Redican.
The nonprofit's chapters across the nation serve 2.2 million mostly homebound seniors per year.
The federal freeze would eliminate 37% of its yearly budget, just over $1 billion of its funding, which comes from the Federal Older Americans Act. For the San Francisco chapter, that amounts to a $3 million cut.
What they're saying
"It's an incredibly challenging thing to happen totally out of the blue, quite literally overnight. We're the only people that they might see in a day, maybe the only food that they eat in a day," said San Francisco Meals on Wheels CEO Jennifer Steele.
Meals on Wheels is a true lifeline, she said.
"Our drivers go in, and they're delivering the meal, they're making sure that the senior is OK, that the home seems safe, that there are no emergency issues, and they're also providing some companionship and keeping connection," said Steele.
Redican shared how Meals on Wheels staff helped him when he fell at his home.
"My feet got mixed up, and I fell over on the ground, and I was there for quite a while and Meals on Wheels came," said Redican.
Meals on Wheels head chef Richard Crocker, who used to be a chef at San Francisco's chic Boulevard Restaurant, found a new purpose in life.
"Everybody deserves a meal and to make sure that that meal is good as can be. It really is our effort here and that is really rewarding," Crocker said.
Philip Duarte, who used to be a Wells Fargo regional director, retired to rise through the ranks of Meals on Wheels, where his mom once volunteered.
"I thought it was a great passion mission that brought me here, and I just wanted to wake up every morning and feel like I had added some value," Duarte said.
This battle is only beginning.
"Lincoln said with malice toward none and charity toward all. And, we're forgetting that," Redican said from his wheelchair.
The Source
Information for the report comes from interviews with staff and officials at San Francisco Meals on Wheels, as well as earlier reporting, including from The Associated Press.
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Yahoo
30 minutes ago
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'What a waste:' US scientists decry Trump's 47% cuts to NASA science budget
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Since January, when President Donald Trump took office for the second time, the White House has been asking U.S. government organizations to implement some pretty radical changes. Things have been tense, to say the least. Thousands of federal workers have been laid off with little explanation, programs that improve diversity in the workplace have been eliminated, research grants have been cancelled in large sweeps, and international college students find themselves at risk of losing their legal status. One government organization that could be hit the hardest is NASA. The agency has faced a particularly extensive amount of pressure from the Trump administration: surveillance, goal restructuring, website purging and more. Other federal science organizations haven't been spared, either — places like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have been targeted as well. The ground of U.S. science seems to be quaking for political reasons rather than scientific ones, leaving scientists disheartened by their government and anxious about what's next. "I don't think it is an overstatement to say that morale among U.S.-based scientists is at an all-time low," Sarah Horst, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, told "People are afraid for their jobs, their students, the projects they've often spent decades working on, and they are afraid for the future of the United States." And things only got worse on May 30, when the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget request for NASA came out. It proposes cutting the agency's science funding by 47%, and the agency's workforce by about one-third — from 17,391 to 11,853. This budget has to be officially passed by Congress to take effect, but if it indeed does, the effects could be brutal. "That would represent the smallest NASA workforce since mid-1960, before the first American had launched into space," Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit exploration and advocacy organization, told "If this budget is made real, I am most concerned about people," John O'Meara, chief scientist at the Keck Observatory, told "Missions deliver data and are essential, but the data is meaningless without the people there to interpret it, test theories and share discoveries with the world." Perhaps the most striking aspect of the White House's 2026 NASA budget proposal is the sheer amount of missions it would cancel altogether: 41 projects, as the Planetary Society said in a statement denouncing the report. "This is the extinction-level event we were warning people about," Dreier said. Some specifics: The sharply reduced budget would cancel the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program, which was meant to bring samples of the Red Planet's surface to Earth — samples that NASA's Perseverance rover has been dutifully collecting over the last few years, and which scientists have long stressed must be analyzed in a lab to reach their full potential. MSR has experienced its own share of complications since its genesis, to be fair, including a huge price tag and what some believe is an overcomplicated mechanism of sample retrieval. However, cancelling the project outright instead of coming up with a solution would waste much of Perseverance's work on the Red Planet. The OSIRIS-APEX mission (you may remember it by its previous moniker, OSIRIS-REx) would also be cut off. This mission successfully sent a spacecraft on a multi-billion-mile expedition to an asteroid named Bennu, then had it grab a few pieces of the asteroid before traveling all the way back to Earth and safely dropping the samples to the ground. This same probe is now on round two, headed to examine the infamous asteroid Apophis — but if the FY26 NASA budget is confirmed, it won't complete its trip. "I'm personally mostly concerned for in-flight missions that already have a significant investment in both taxpayer dollars and peoples' lives/careers (including my own)," Kevin McGill, an employee at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the agency's lead center for robotic planetary exploration, told "Luckily, my work on [the Curiosity Mars rover] and Mars2020 [Perseverance] are mostly safe, but a lot of other stuff isn't." The budget also suggests ceasing operations for the Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft, which has been circling our solar system's gas giant since 2016 while regularly delivering rich information about the world and its moons. Juno is responsible for all those swirly blue images of Jupiter the astronomy community holds high; it took five years for this spacecraft to get to where it is, and many more for it to be built in the first place. "The operating missions cancellations alone represent over $12 billion of invested taxpayer value — and once they're gone, they're gone. It would take years and many millions more to replace them," Dreier said. NASA would also need to pull out of its collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the Rosalind Franklin rover — for the second time, no less — which is a robotic life-hunting explorer set to launch toward Mars in 2028. NASA had to pull out in 2012 because of budget cuts as well but re-entered the rover program after ESA cut ties with its other partner, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, once Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. "This makes the U.S. an untrustworthy partner and our allies hesitate the next time we ask them for help," Dreier said. Two operational Mars orbiters — Mars Odyssey and MAVEN — would be cancelled as well, as would the New Horizons spacecraft currently studying the outer reaches of the solar system and the DaVinci and VERITAS missions, which would explore Venus. The Lunar Gateway, which NASA envisioned as a sort of International Space Station around the moon, would also be cancelled. "What was surprising was the level of cuts within parts of each of the agencies. An example is astrophysics, where the cut was nearly 2/3 of the astrophysics budget," O'Meara said. According to the Planetary Society's analysis of the budget, that huge astrophysics reduction could mean eight spacecraft dedicated to studying extreme events in the universe (think, the Chandra X-ray Observatory) would be terminated. This analysis also suggests 10 missions constructed to study the region around Earth and the sun would be cancelled, as well as about a dozen Earth-specific missions that help scientists forecast natural disasters such as hurricanes and track global warming. The latter is especially concerning, given the speed with which Earth is heating up due to human activities that lead to greenhouse gas emissions — activities the Trump administration favors, such as burning coal for cheap power. Per the budget proposal, the White House also wants NASA to eliminate its "green aviation" spending, dedicated to making airplanes better for the environment, and instead work on "protecting the development of technologies with air traffic control and defense applications." It is also worth considering that other Trump-mandated moves have heavily impacted climate initiatives as well: more than 800 NOAA workers were laid off, for example, and NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, which houses climate change records dating back to the 1800s, was closed down — leading members of NASA's largest union to speak out in solidarity with their coworkers. Hundreds of scientists working on the National Climate Assessment, a huge report that details the dangers of climate change for policymakers to lean on, were also dismissed. (That represented all of the authors of this report). "This budget request, and its implications, has been highly disruptive to the entire field," O'Meara said. "We are forced to focus on 'what-if' planning that changes in scope rapidly. That takes the time away from what we do best: doing science and sharing it with the world." Furthermore, the White House's FY26 NASA budget proposal centers around a shift toward human missions to the Red Planet; this was a rare area that saw a budget boost in the President's request. For example, one slide in the budget summary says NASA should invest "more than $1 billion in new technology investments to enable a crewed mission to Mars." Another says the agency should allocate "$200M for Commercial Mars Payload Services (CMPS) to start launching robotic precursor missions to the Martian surface, and $80M to start deploying communications relay capabilities for Mars." "It just bothers me that they are changing almost the entirety of NASA's mission to this pipe dream of a human mission to Mars in any reasonable time frame and cost," McGill said. reached out to NASA for comment on the possible impact of these budget cuts, and was directed to acting administrator Janet Petro's statement in the proposal's Technical Supplement. This statement is supportive of the budget request overall, mentioning items such as a renewed push for human spaceflight to the moon and Mars. "The President's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for NASA reflects the Trump-Vance Administration's commitment to strengthening America's leadership in space exploration while exercising fiscal responsibility. With this budget, we aim to shape a Golden Age of innovation and exploration," it reads. This shift toward Mars crewed missions is perhaps predictable, given Trump's affiliation with SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk. (Former affiliation, maybe, given the heated feud currently unfolding on social media between the two.) Musk was a prominent backer of Trump's campaign and worked very closely with him over the past four months. For example, the SpaceX chief ran the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), which was responsible for the bulk of government funding cuts in the name of saving "wasted taxpayer money." 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This united aversion to the budget proposal is unsurprising. The bipartisan U.S. Planetary Science Caucus, for instance, previously released a statement in response to early blueprints of the proposal that suggested the huge cuts we're seeing presented now. "We are extremely alarmed by reports of a preliminary White House budget that proposes cutting NASA Science funding by almost half and terminating dozens of programs already well underway, like the Mars Sample Return mission and the Roman Space Telescope," co-chairs Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) and Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) wrote. Such agreement across the aisle makes sense when we consider how long it takes for space missions to reach fruition. Collaboration isn't just key — it's unavoidable. "Spaceflight, and human spaceflight in particular, requires hand-off from one administration to another," Dreier said. "The timelines are just too long for any one presidential administration." 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Fox News
43 minutes ago
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Trump celebrates US' long history giving foreign enemies 'hell' at massive military parade
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Yahoo
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As thousands protest at State House, has SC's approval of Trump shifted at all?
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'There's a clear difference over [Kilmar Abrego] Garcia being brought back, but that's really the only strong immigration story that's bubbled up to public attention.' Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who previously lived in Maryland after entering the country without documentation. He and several other immigrants the Trump administration accused of gang ties were deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador under an emergency war powers act that courts later blocked. A judge ordered that the U.S. 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. because his deportation violated a previous court order that found Abrego Garcia was likely to face persecution if he was returned to El Salvador, and the Supreme Court later upheld the decision. Trump initially insisted he was unable to remove Abrego Garcia from Salvadoran custody, but earlier this month Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S. to face charges of human smuggling. On Saturday at the State House, state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, addressed the crowd. 'No more, enough is enough,' Johnson, D-Richland, chanted several times at the outset of his remarks. In what he called 'an attack' on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies in South Carolina, Johnson said he challenged his colleagues on the House floor. 'I had to tell them, what are you afraid of?' Johnson said. 'Are you afraid of the diversity part? Are you afraid of the equity part or in the inclusion part. Nobody told you that you can't be proud of being white. Nobody told you can't be proud of you being European. Nobody told you can't be proud of being Jewish. Nobody told you we could not be proud of being Black. ' The protests are also taking place with the backdrop of Trump's deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to demonstrations against immigration raids in the city, a move that was resisted by local officials who fear it could increase tensions and the potential for violence. 'When you see something you need to take a stance for, don't let anybody get in the way of standing up for what you believe in, despite the possibility of retaliation,' Hakeem Hayard, 27, of Columbia said at the State House rally Saturday. 'I firmly believe that if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything, and in this day and age, where information can be easily misused, solidarity is better than separation. So, unity is the goal here for me today.' Some protesters of Latin descent were reluctant to share their names, including a 21-year-old who is the first in his family born in America. He said close relatives have been summoned to immigration court. 'I have loved ones close to me that have already been called into immigration court and told the government is trying to get rid of your visa and are trying to take you away,' the man said. 'My family is lucky to have their own lawyers. A lot of people don't have that help. A lot of people, find themselves detained by ICE after their immigration hearing in court.' The May Winthrop poll showed that 44% of South Carolinians said Trump should comply with court orders to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. 33% said he should not, and 23% were unsure. 'We shouldn't assume that all of the respondents knew the particulars of the Abrego Garcia case,' Huffmon noted when releasing the poll results. 'If they didn't, this becomes more of a referendum on whether the Trump administration should be bound by court orders when it comes to immigration.' The same poll shows that 45% of South Carolinians disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy, while 43% approve. But Trump is much stronger on immigration, with 50% approving of his handling of the issue and 40% disapproving. 'The people who constantly follow the news forget that the average person doesn't pay attention closely until something like the protests erupt, and then they see it as coming out of nowhere,' Huffmon said. 'It's possible that people who like the idea of Trump deporting folks have a problem with using the National Guard and military against U.S. citizens. That could produce a shift among those moderately supporting Trump.' Greg Brewer, an engineer and self-described 'limited government fiscal conservative' living in Lexington, used to live in California and moved back to South Carolina amid the strict lockdown requirements imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 'California in general is completely mismanaged, with its debt, its catastrophes,' Brewer said. 'The vegetation isn't managed, which is why they have these wildfires. I think there's nothing impressive about Gavin Newsom, he's a disaster.' 'Trump got elected because of concerns about sovereignty and border protection,' he said. 'That's what he campaigned on, and he's delivering on it.' But another Lexington conservative had a different reaction to the week's news. Anne Marie Green, the former chair of the Lexington 1 school board, posted on Facebook that she was surprised to be heading to the protest herself. 'As a Christian, a lifelong Republican, and someone who grew up on the principled, conservative leadership of Ronald Reagan and Governor Carroll Campbell, I never imagined I would attend a protest,' Green wrote. 'I'll be standing with others at the No Kings protest to affirm something simple but vital: In America, we don't worship politicians. We hold them accountable. Our leaders are servants, not kings.' State Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, believes that at least some people who voted for Trump are reconsidering, citing Arab American voters in Michigan who abandoned the Democrats over the Biden administration's approach to the war in Gaza, or Cuban Americans who have seen the revocation of immigrants' protected status under Trump. 'Republican businessmen see their 401(k)s plummet, and then when a court rules he did something illegal, the stock market goes up,' he said. 'Even the business community feels like they did not get what they pay for.'
