State Representative Charlie Meier says he has found two problems leading to funding issues that temporarily shut down the Project Bread Meal Sites in Salem and Centralia.
He reports the federal government was making bigger monthly payments that was going to lead to a shortfall of funding at the end of the fiscal year September 30th. Meier says the other problem is within the Illinois Department on Aging.
“The Department of Aging doesn’t have enough help to process these vouchers and get them ready to be sent over to the comptroller’s office for these payments to happen,” Meier said. “The comptroller keeps saying they’re only 13 days behind on payments, but the vouchers aren’t there. We couldn’t figure out what was going on, and now they say they don’t have enough workers. You know, I think there’s still some state employees working from home. Everybody has to be at work to work. That’s got to end too. Let’s get them in, let’s keep people working and make them do their job.”
Meier still feels additional funding is needed to keep senior programs running. He is a chief co-sponsor of a bill that would take $25-million in state funding for the Welcoming Centers for illegal immigrants and redirect it to Senior Citizen programs.
BCMW has now received a check for providing Project Bread services in July, with no indication when any additional funding would be received. No plans are being made to reopen until future funding is clearer. The Salem Ministerial Alliance is providing a temporary hot meal program for those on the program in Salem and the smaller communities of Marion County. BCMW has used donations to purchase food from a statewide food pantry and delivered it to the Project Bread recipients.
