Wellington Senior Center at 308 S. Washington.

By Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Meals on Wheels and Friendship Meal, a program that helps bring affordable food to Senior Citizens who are either homebound or in need, appears to have survived another day.

In May, the Wellington Senior Center, as well as senior citizen facilities in 10 counties, were wrestling with the news that the food assistance program could end on July 1.

However, South Central Kansas Area Agency recently announced that meal services for seniors in Sumner, Chautauqua, Cowley, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Kingman, McPherson, Reno and Rice Counties will continue, but with different providers. The agency terminated its contract with Everfull, a non-profit based in Hutchinson. Another agency has yet to be named to fill in Everfull’s place.

SCKAAA states that it has received an emergency $100,000 grant from the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services to continue providing meal services for seniors in the 10 counties. The agency states that it will collaborate with alternative meal providers to ensure a seamless transition.

Wellington Senior Center Director June Draper said this is good news. Wellington serves around 50 homebound senior citizens Monday through Friday. Then there are anywhere from 20 to 30 seniors who come to the facility at 308 S. Washington Ave.

“For a while, we had no idea what was happening next; nobody was telling us anything,” Draper said. “I had people come to me asking me about whether these friendship meals were going to continue, and all I could tell them was ‘I didn’t know.’ It was very frustrating.”

Meals on Wheels has been delivering to senior citizens for more than five decades. For Wellington, meals are shipped in from Caldwell and then a driver delivers them to various people throughout the community.

“For some of these seniors, this is the only meal they are going to get for the day,” Draper said.

Friendship meals have been delivered in Wellington, Argonia, Belle Plaine, Caldwell, Conway Springs, Mayfield, Oxford, and South Haven.

While everyone has breathed a sigh of relief at the moment, the long-term implications for the program have yet to be determined. In a letter written by Charles Johnston, Executive Director of Everfull, to affected partners, he states:

“While details of this contract cancellation continue to be figured out, Everfull must make plans to wind down operations in these 10 counties to guarantee the survival of these necessary services in the other counties served. However, like you, we have significant concerns about the disruption that could occur in this transition. Everfull regrets this circumstance as we were ready, willing, and able to continue to provide service had the funding shortfalls been addressed.

In their verbal contract termination, SCKAAA stated that they are planning to provide meal services on July 1, 2025, which leads us to believe they have found funding to make that possible. We have no information about their plans other than we were not selected as a workable solution.”

He then stated:

“We must face the truth: the program we run on behalf of SCKAAA is in crisis.”