Des Plaines wants to hand off meal program

Des Plaines' Meals On Wheels program will continue, but the city won't be running it.

Officials plan to hand over the administration of the program, which helps provide warm meals to homebound senior citizens and other people in need, with $40,000 in yearly funding to the Des Plaines Senior Center. That is in addition to the $40,000 the senior center will get from the city for its own operations.

For years, the Meals On Wheels program has been operated out of the city's Health and Human Services Department. Residents feared the program would be discontinued after two full-time employee positions within the department were eliminated as part of citywide cutbacks to close a budget shortfall.

The Health and Human Services Department will now have part-time staff members who cannot also run the meal delivery program, Assistant City Manager Jason Slowinski said.

City officials have proposed a two-year agreement with the senior center to operate the program and are working with the center's leadership to ensure a smooth transition, Slowinski said.

On Monday night, the city council deferred a decision on funding for the senior center and the Meals On Wheels program and requested an explanation as to why it would cost the senior center $40,000 to run a program that serves only 33 residents.

Ward 8 Alderman Rosemary Argus said volunteers now deliver the meals and participants pay for the meals, which are provided free to the city.

"I'm concerned about how the money is going to be used and oversight," Ward 5 Alderman James Brookman said. "What can the money be applied for, if it's not being used for the meals, then?"

Slowinski said a major portion of the $40,000 cost is for hiring social workers required to run the Meals on Wheels program.

"They might do it a little differently than we do it here," he said. The program cost the city far more than $40,000 in staff time, benefits and pensions, Slowinski said, though he could not quantify it.

"Our overhead costs were much more," he said.

Slowinski said the cost to run the program could go down to $25,000 in the third year if the senior center is able to secure grant funding for it.

Brookman requested a quarterly review of the program after the center takes over administration instead of the proposed yearly review.

"I don't really want to wait a year and find out it's a disaster," he said.

The city council will vote on the senior center and meals program funding at its Jan. 19 meeting.

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