ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Food assistance programs for seniors in the Quad Cities area say they are experiencing a higher demand for meals but are having a difficult time funding that need.
During the last fiscal year, the Rock Island County Senior Center with Project Now served regular meals to 814 seniors. Right now, they have a waitlist that is 117 people long.
"There's such a great need for it," Amy Fortney with the senior center said. "We can't accommodate everyone, unfortunately."
The number of meals provided in the area rose during the COVID-19 pandemic. However since then, emergency funding has dried up, and the number of people enrolled in the program is still high.
"I get probably 4-10 calls a day from people asking about the program," Fortney said. "They just need so much help."
Fortney said she has even had people chase her down the street with questions.
"It happens quite often. I’ll be driving, somebody will honk next to me, ask me to roll down my window," she said.
The need doesn't end in the Quad Cities area. Lawmakers in Springfield said they are getting calls about similar situations across the state.
In response, Illinois House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, has filed a bill that would appropriate $25 million in funding to the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Aging for the Home Delivered Meals Program. That money would be diverted from the Department of Human Services for Illinois Welcoming Centers, which assists newly arriving immigrants and refugees.
"We have other resources, other folks, like in this case senior citizens throughout the state that should be having services first before non-citizens coming into our state," McCombie said.
HB5911 has already received numerous cosponsors but it's unclear if the bill would have enough support to pass in a Democrat-controlled legislature.
McCombie said Democratic Rep. Anthony DeLuca of Chicago Heights also introduced legislation moving money from the Welcome Centers program to other projects.
"This is a fund that apparently some of us feel shouldn't be there,” she said.
McCombie said in addition to the void in federal government pandemic relief money, the difference between the state and federal government's fiscal years added to the meal program's funding problems.
"A lot of these agencies were spending at a level that they assumed they were going to get for nine months," she said. "Then the feds came in and said we're cutting the budget. So they've been overspending for nine months."
If passed, funding in HB5911 could assist seniors like Fred Cersnetisch.
"It really helps us out a lot," he said.
In the meantime, people like Amy Fortney will continue driving their routes and serving the community.
"Once you do it every day they become family," Fortney said reflecting on her job.
The Rock Island Senior Center estimates it will be short about $150,000 next year, without including those on the waitlist.