City Council OKs $12,000 for Agency That Feeds Elderly

The City Council on Monday night approved a $12,000 emergency grant for an organization that provides meals for senior citizens countywide.

“We’re very close to going broke,” Shirley Cohen, executive director of the Feedback Foundation, told the council. “We’re in big trouble.”

The council approved the grant on a 4-1 vote, with Councilman Orville Amburgey dissenting.

The foundation, which serves more than 3,000 senior citizens throughout the county, is one of largest meal programs in the country, according to its directors.

The financially strapped foundation is seeking $100,000 in emergency funds to continue its operations through June.

The 17-year-old program receives about $1.79 million annually in federal funds, but the new grant will not be awarded until July, said Cohen.

Foundation directors said they have been hard hit by spiraling operating costs while the level of federal funding has remained the same for the last eight years. Although clients are asked to pay for services on a sliding scale based on what they can afford, most are classified as poor and pay nothing.

The foundation operates 28 sites around the county. Several other cities that the program serves, including Santa Ana, Orange and Brea, have also promised emergency funds.

In addition, the group has asked to make a last-minute appeal to the county Board of Supervisors today to request emergency funding.