Mayor Turner Urges Congress to Maintain Meals on Wheels
Style Magazine Newswire | 3/22/2017, 11:33 a.m.
Mayor Sylvester Turner issued the following statement regarding proposed federal budget cuts that would seriously reduce funding for the Meals on Wheels program in Houston.
“As Honorary Chair of the Advisory Board of Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, the largest Meals on Wheels provider in the Greater Houston area, I know firsthand the importance of this program. Interfaith Ministries serves Approximately 4,000 homebound seniors and disabled adults receive Meals on Wheels from Interfaith Ministries each day. Even more Houston residents are served by other agencies such as the YWCA and the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center. More than 90 percent of these clients have annual incomes that place them below the federal poverty level. They depend on the hot meal provided by Meals on Wheels for sustenance. For many of these residents, the driver delivering this meal is often the only regular visitor they receive. Without this vital program, thousands of our most vulnerable citizens will be left alone and hungry. I am calling on our Congressional delegation to not let this happen.”