Area Agency on Aging ends Grab and Go food program
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Area Agency on Aging (AAA) has ended the Grab and Go portion of its congregate meal program.
Mary Harris, the agency’s director, said a decrease in funding led to the decision involving a program started during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was started during the pandemic as an alternative way of delivering the congregate meals when we had the social distancing requirements and the centers were closed for a period of time,” Harris said Friday.
Harris said initially it was thought that the meals would be temporary and would end after the pandemic. However, the agency had the option of continuing the Grab and Go program.
“We decided to continue them, but they have been gradually decreasing on their own over time as more people have gone into the centers, or in some cases, people have decided to meet their nutritional needs otherwise,” she said.
Harris said the agency has been experiencing some funding challenges as a revised funding formula resulted in a 43% reduction in federal funding.
American Rescue Plan Act funds kept Grab and Go afloat for a while.
“We were able to continue delivering services at our normal level because those other funds were making up for the loss,” Harris said. “This is the first year those funds have expired, so we’re really kind of feeling the crunch from that change. We hoped there would be additional Lottery funds allotted to AAA this year, but that did not happen.”
People who were receiving those meals may go to a center to get their meal.
“You can come to the center and we also still have our in-home meal program for those people who meet the income eligibility requirements,” Harris said. “We’re hoping to strengthen the centers. More than anything we don’t want to have to cut the center services. We want to invest more in that aspect of our service delivery.”
Harris said about 400 to 450 seniors were using the Grab and Go service in the counties the agency serves, which are Washington, Fayette and Greene.
Harris also wanted to dispel the rumor that the decision was at the county level, as she said the county does not fund the agency.
“The commissioners are very supportive of what we do,” she said. “They work with us to advocate for funding of all of our programs.”