Last week, WEAR-TV reporter Melanie Levi reported that cuts have been made to the Council on Aging’s congregate food program, which serves approximately 800 hot meals to senior citizens weekly in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. Read more.
Yesterday, Emily Echevarria, the Communications Director for Council on Aging (COA), shared with Inweekly that her organization served five hot meals daily at the start of 2025, but later had to drop the Friday serving in the spring because it had drawn down 20% in excess of its budget, due to rising food costs and more seniors using the program. COA already had to deal with a $150,000 reduction from its 2024 budget for its congregate dining site programs.
COA hoped the reduction would let them “catch up” and avoid running out of funding before the end of the year. Then, COA got hit with a $20,000 cut in Older Americans Act (OAA) funding, forcing them to suspend hot meals on Mondays and Fridays.
Currently, COA offers hot meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and “shelf-stable” meals on Wednesdays.
The organization hopes to return to five days a week in 2026.
