Cranston's senior services director outlined revenue and expenditure shifts to the Finance Committee on April 12, saying the department stopped outside catering last January after a city analysis showed delivering meals for other communities had been losing money.

Steve Craddock, director of the senior center, told the committee the center once delivered meals to 16 communities and produced about 5,000 meals a week but found the program's costs  food, trucks, full-time staff and liability exposures  outpaced revenues. "We were making revenue, but we are losing it on the expense side," Craddock said. He added the city now focuses on catering meals only for Cranston's in-center and in-home services.

Committee members pressed for clarity on grants and fee revenues. Craddock described the department's main grant streams: about $90,000 from the Office of Healthy Aging, roughly $24,000 from Title III-D evidence-based health programs, and roughly $75,000 that supports the RSVP program; fee revenue comes from transportation fares, exercise classes and program fees.

On expenditures, the department told councilors it expects to avoid large carryovers and to limit purchases to grant-driven needs. Members also asked whether services are open to residents of other communities; Craddock said anyone may attend the Cranston senior center but Cranston residents pay reduced fees.

The Finance Committee took questions about past revenues and the department's decision to wind down outside catering, and the director said safety and long-term costs  including vehicle operations and the liability of staff driving into other towns  contributed to the change.

What happened next: the committee continued the departmental review; no formal funding decisions were made at the April 12 hearing.