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Advocates tell Appropriations committee Meals on Wheels needs sustained state and federal support
Summary
Dan Noyes and other witnesses described per-meal costs, matched funding from Medicaid and Older Americans Act dollars, and warned that federal continuing resolution uncertainty could affect Meals on Wheels funding.
Dan Noyes, speaking to the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 19, urged legislators to consider continued and reliable funding for Meals on Wheels providers and senior centers across Vermont. Noyes said he works with many Meals on Wheels providers and that state funds were previously paired with Medicaid investment dollars to support meal delivery.
He described last year’s funding mix as “about $1,000,000 in general fund, $1.3 million in Medicaid investment,” combined with Older Americans Act dollars for a total in the mid‑$3 million range. Noyes told the committee the federal funding stream is at risk because the continuing resolution then in effect was due to expire March 14, and asked the committee to “keep an eye on that and think about what that means to Vermont when a majority of our funding comes through the federal government.”
Noyes provided a meal‑cost analysis with per‑meal figures from several towns (examples he gave included Saint Albans/Middlebury/Burlington/Underhill/Franklin $10.36; Burke $17.90; Putney $10.09; Waterbury $16.45; Morrisville $9.16; and a small program at $7.47). He said small nonprofits face costs for food, volunteer recruitment, insurance and utilities.
The testimony did not ask for a specific dollar increase from the committee but placed the programs’ current funding composition and federal dependency on the record for FY ’26 budget considerations.
