About $5.1 million in temporary COVID-19 funding will no longer be available, and several services will be suspended from Friday, meaning about 900 people will lose their daily meals.
The Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center is warning SCV and Antelope Valley residents that its nutrition programs will lose $5.1 million in state and federal funding and many services will be discontinued starting Friday.
The center had received temporary COVID-19 relief funding from both the state and federal governments, but that funding was no longer available when the COVID emergency ended in February 2023. According to a news release from the center, the following services will no longer be offered as of Friday:
- A “drive-thru” lunch service that provides meals to approximately 700 seniors per day.
- They provide walk-up “grab and go” meal service to over 200 people.
Senior centers will also be affected:
- “Sit-down dining” offered inside the Bella Vida Senior Center will be limited to 350 meals per day, with a wait list being created on Monday.
- Meal service will continue at Bouquet Canyon Apartments for the 70 participants, but new referrals will not be accepted.
- Meals on Wheels, a program for seniors who have difficulty leaving their homes, is limited to 500 people per day and funding has been secured until February.
- significant layoffs and changes to the center’s staff;
Senior Center CEO Kevin McDonald said he is still determining exactly how many employees will be laid off due to the elimination of temporary funding for those positions.
In total, about 900 seniors will lose meal services.
The center’s other facilities will not be affected.
The COVID-19 funding is essential to “get through the COVID crisis,” McDonald said in a phone interview Tuesday, adding that the center only learned last week that it would not receive funding for its food program as it has during the pandemic and up until this school year.
But now, the food program is able to feed about 1,500 to 1,600 people a day, and McDonald said they are actively looking at alternatives for the 900 people who will no longer be able to receive those services.
“It’s always these people who come into the centre so they have to get food in other ways and we will be putting information on our website of where they can get extra food if necessary,” Mr MacDonald said. “We will be creating a crisis list of people who are malnourished and need meals and will assist them through our social work team.”
McDonald did not immediately release a list of resources available to seniors as of Tuesday.
The senior center, which opened its 30,000-square-foot, two-story facility at 27180 Golden Valley Road in April 2019, prepares about 2,000 meals a day, McDonald said. It also features a banquet hall that can accommodate more than 250 people, fitness and dance studios, outdoor cabanas with concert seating, six multi-purpose rooms and a library.
The center added the Antelope Valley area to its Meals on Wheels program in 2018, providing “thousands of meals” and meal sites in Palmdale, Lancaster and Lake Los Angeles, according to information on its website.
As for future funding, McDonald said he and his team are hopeful that some relief will come from the federal government through the Older Americans Act, which includes a special section on nutrition funded by Congress. Then, counties across the country will choose which organizations to fund.
McDonald said the senior center has always received support from the county.
Additional funding has come from local donors, the city of Santa Clarita and Los Angeles County, McDonald said.
“Every year we receive great support from local donors to continue the program,” he said, “They’ve been very supportive of the senior center. The city has been very supportive as well, as has the county and state.”
MacDonald said even if the state were able to provide additional funding — which he doesn’t expect — he knows it wouldn’t be a “complete answer” to the center’s needs.
“We’ve been providing this fantastic service for a long time and all of us here truly sympathize with those affected,” McDonald said, “but we will continue to advocate for additional funding and do everything we can to ensure we can serve seniors in every way we can at the Senior Centre through our social work team and other resources.”
The SCV Senior Center is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
To join the meal waiting list or let us know you need food resources, email [email protected]For emergency services, please call the Senior Center’s Support Services department at 661-259-944 ext. 130.
For more information about the Senior Center, Source.
