Editorial

Taking care of our own

Friday, January 27, 2006

It's been said before that we should "take care of our own."

Missouri's modest budget surplus and improving economy have made it so that we can do just that, and the timing couldn't be better. Over the past few years, rising costs, increased demand, and insufficient funds have contributed to the closing of 17 senior nutrition centers throughout the state. These centers offer a valuable service to our seniors, including delivering hot meals to seniors' homes. These closings carry consequences. When one nutrition center closes, another picks up the load, or at least tries to. When resources run thin, some seniors may struggle to remain independent and face the prospect of entering a nursing home or other form of institutional care. In addition, the Central Missouri Food Bank, which serves a large portion of central and northeast Missouri, reported that the number of people needing assistance increased from 67,000 to 75,000 people per month. That's an increase of 12 percent in just one part of the state and in just one year! These numbers represent real programs that impact real people throughout the state. Higher heating costs are hitting people's pocketbooks, and increased gas prices are impacting the costs of food and how much volunteers pay to transport meals to the elderly. While the legislature can't wave a magic wand, there are ways we can allocate resources and offer incentives that will provide substantial assistance to those in need.

To that end, I would like to announce three initiatives to alleviate elderly hunger. The first initiative addresses the need for home-delivered meals. Several of our elderly neighbors, friends and family members are frail and cannot easily get out of their home to do basic grocery shopping. Others may not be physically capable of cooking their own meal. To remedy this issue, Medicaid programs provide home delivered meals to the eligible elderly. These programs not only bring the elderly a hot meal, but they also provide a contact with someone on an ongoing basis. Having this contact has, in some cases, literally resulted in saved lives.

We need to take the existing program a step further, and this initiative will. It appropriates an additional $1 million for home delivered meals to the elderly who are not eligible for Medicaid. Several agencies throughout the state report that they are struggling to maintain the status quo or that the costs of some meals are going unfunded into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. This should fill a gap for nutrition centers and for elderly Missourians, especially those that are just above eligibility guidelines for Medicaid.

Local food pantries offer help to Missouri's hungry on a daily basis. They represent the compassion and care that communities can offer those in need. Yet, several food pantries are finding it more difficult to supply the needs. The second initiative will impact your ability and mine to play a part with these food pantries in assuring that our neighbors receive proper nutrition.

The initiative will offer a 50 percent tax credit to individuals and businesses that make donations to food pantries. We all know that the best help comes from close to home. So this legislation is set up to encourage local involvement. Tax credits will be capped at $2,500 per entity per food pantry. That way, someone who may not have an enormous amount of money to spare -- let's say $200 -- will receive a tax credit of $100. That will make a real difference for the family in need and for the hard-working taxpayer. Plus, it might give you a chance to teach older children about the virtues of giving even in small amounts.

The last initiative brings us back to helping the elderly in our communities. The federally administered Food Stamp Program helps keep food on the table for many Missourians. For some seniors, however, the assistance comes up a little short. This new initiative, called the Elderly Nutrition Food Supplement Program, will help elderly individuals and couples who receive less than $30 a month under the current Food Stamp Program. For example, a senior who receives $10 per month would receive an additional $20 after this initiative is passed. For elderly couples, the combined state and federal assistance would add up to $60 a month.

An important point I want to add is that both the food pantry initiative and the ENFS Program include "sunset" provisions. This means that after so many years (in this case, four years for the food pantry program and two years for the ENFS Program) the programs will be discontinued. That will give us a deadline so we can monitor the programs and assure that their growth is kept in check. Then we can modify and improve the programs as needed, honoring our responsibility to the needy and to the hardworking taxpayers of Missouri.

I look forward to seeing how these proposals can impact our communities. I'm especially interested in seeing how local contributions can help our local food pantries. If things were different, if Missouri's economic climate was not on the upswing, I'm not sure we could do this. But, thanks to pro-growth policies enacted last year and the hard work that you do, we can move ahead with programs like these for those in need.