http://springfield.news-leader.com/news/_saturday/20050402-Newfundcouldhel.html..."Right now we have a waiting list for housekeeping services," said Dorothy Knowles, executive director of the Southwest Missouri Office on Aging, a federally and state-funded agency that provides senior services in 17 area counties, including Greene. "We have a waiting list for respite care services, for caregivers. There's no waiting list for meals, but that program can't expand."
Services like these, Knowles said, can make the difference between seniors staying at home or moving to assisted-care or nursing facilities.
"It's less cost for the state," she said. "Every time we keep a senior in their home, we're keeping them off Medicaid for a longer time."
A month of home-delivered meals costs about $150, compared with about $4,000 a month for nursing home care. To be eligible for meals and other in-home services, SMOA officials perform an evaluation on interested seniors.
"If they're homebound and ailing enough they can't prepare food for themselves, that's the criteria we look at," said Clyde Griffith, administrator of SMOA's office at the Springfield's Northview Senior Center and coordinator of the center's home meal delivery program, Daily Bread.
Griffith said in March, the center delivered 2,760 meals to seniors living north of Chestnut Expressway in Springfield.
The suggested donation per meal is $2.25, both in the center and delivered. But donations often fall short, Griffith said. In March, donations averaged $1.69 per meal.
"There's a quite a void there that we have to come up with somewhere," said Griffith. "That's where this (tax) would come in handy, as far as this particular center is concerned." Griffith said he also always has trouble finding enough volunteer drivers for the program, a problem he hopes the tax could help alleviate.
Knowles said the proposed tax, already in place in 27 Missouri counties, comes at a crucial moment for the SMOA. She was alerted Wednesday that the state has cut $94,025 out of her office's funding for April, May and June. That's about 10 percent of the general revenue provided by the state every year.
The money is used to match Medicaid funds that some seniors pay the center for meals. If the cuts become permanent, the SMOA would also lose that Medicaid income.
"We will have enough matching funds to not lose and Medicaid (fund) for three months," said Knowles. "But if we go into (fiscal year) '06 and the governor cuts equal amounts for the year, that will devastate our home delivered meals program."
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