The Pima Council on Aging
A Tucson nonprofit is closing its six meal sites after federal funding cuts and expiring pandemic-era funding.
Catholic Community Services announced the following locations would stop serving meals on Friday, June 13.
- El Pueblo Activity Senior Center
- Quincie Douglas Center
- Ellie Towne Community Center
- Saguaro Christian Church
- Casa de Esperanza (Green Valley)
- Ajo Community Center
CCS is also withdrawing from the Meals on Wheels Program, and the Pima Council on Aging announced that new partnerships will take over operations providing mobile meals for about 400 people, according to a press release.
“There will be no interruption in services for any older adults currently receiving home-delivered meals,” it reads.
PCOA's CEO Robert Ojeda, said they are looking for more funding opportunities to reopen the congregate meals sites, which he said provide an important community to an increasing number of unhoused seniors.
“Folks coming together and socializing, and disrupting the social isolation that may be taking place, those things are also as important as the food,” he said.
Ojeda said the closures are due to a combination of the expiring American Rescue Plan, and changes to the interstate funding formula that distributes money to states from the Older Americans Act.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration restructured the Administration for Community Living, the department formed to implement the Older Americans Act, and in charge of funding many welfare programs for seniors.
In March, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., announced a reorganization of the ACL, saying its services will be restructured under departments including the Administration for Children and Families, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Five of PCOA’s congregate lunch locations remain open to new participants affected by the closures:
- Armory Park Senior Center
- Casa De Encanto
- Casa De Pueblo
- Freedom Park Center
- William M. Clements Center
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