Countywide : Meals Charity Asks Cities to Give More

The Feedback Foundation, an Anaheim-based organization that serves meals to poor and homebound seniors in Orange County, has asked the 14 cities it serves to increase their share of the program’s costs or face potential cutbacks.

The organization recently reassessed each city’s “fair share” of funding for the meal service and found that no cities were contributing as much as they should, said Director Shirley A. Cohen.

The charity’s annual budget is $3.5 million, which includes an adult day care center and an adult day health care program, in addition to the programs that provide about 2,700 meals a day to seniors in Orange County, Cohen said.

Fair share amounts were determined by analyzing the cost of each site, including rent, staff salaries, gas and food, and the number of meals served, said Ronald Gray, Feedback finance director. He then deducted the donations from seniors and the federal grant funds.

The difference between the net costs and the amounts provided by the seniors and grants is a city’s “fair share,” he said.

The Feedback Foundation hopes to receive 10% of site costs--not including in-kind contributions such as free rent--from each city after donations and volunteer work are considered, Gray said.

The cities that now contribute to Feedback pay an average of 4.4% of the costs, he added.

The seniors who make donations when they receive meals at home or when they go to various service locations defray 20% of the costs, Gray said.

The health care programs in Anaheim and Santa Ana are funded primarily through Medi-Cal, Cohen said. The rest of the money comes from private donations and government grants.

“Since the federal money hasn’t increased in eight years, it’s impossible to provide services, especially because there’s been inflation and in many cases, the donations have dropped,” Cohen said, explaining the need for the reassessment.

Feedback has sent letters to the cities and has approached some city councils asking for more money.

So far, only Laguna Beach has refused to allocate any additional funds this year, Cohen said.

“We said we could not afford it at this time,” said Laguna Beach Deputy City Manager Cindy King. However, city officials want to examine Feedback’s financial report to verify the number of seniors served in the city before giving a final answer to the request, King said.

Santa Ana is reviewing Feedback’s request that it increase its $50,000 allocation to $84,000, but it has already reached a 15% limit of its federal block grant money earmarked for social service agencies, said John Reekstin, operations manager with the city’s Community Development Agency.

“They’re definitely one of our biggest recipients,” Reekstin said. “We’ve always worked as hard as we could to meet their needs.”

The Costa Mesa City Council was asked this week for an additional $35,000--an amount Cohen said could be reduced if the city waives the $340 monthly charge for space at the Rea Community Center.

About 200 meals a day go to Costa Mesa seniors, according to Cohen. The city this year gave Feedback $19,500.

The council is expected to consider the request at its Monday night meeting.

Contributions to the Feedback Foundation in 1990

“FAIR CURRENT CITY SHARE” CONTRIBUTION Anaheim $62,000 $50,000 Brea 12,000 2,000 Buena Park 16,000 15,000 Costa Mesa 42,000 7,000 * Fountain Valley 4,000 -- Fullerton 18,000 -- Huntington Beach 18,000 9,000 Laguna Beach 7,000 3,000 La Habra 7,000 5,000 Orange 8,000 -- Placentia 12,000 4,000 Santa Ana 84,000 50,000 Tustin 21,000 -- Villa Park 400 --

Source: Feedback Foundation finance director Ronald Gray * Does not include a $12,000 advance given this year out of the 1991 allocation.