Last week, Meals on Wheels was scheduled to lose $1.2 million in federal funding, which would have drastically cut deliveries down.

Five days a week, volunteers and staff deliver meals to more than 3,600 older community members who cannot easily leave their homes. The federal funding cut would have cut around 10% of those deliveries.

Bill Miller Bar-B-Q was among the first businesses and donors to step in and offer to help keep services running until at least the end of the year. H-E-B has pledged to give $6 million to organizations across the state.

“It definitely would have hurt,” said LaMarshall Corbett, a Meals on Wheels delivery driver. “Since it’s back up, it’s lovely.”

Corbett is the conduit between the nonprofit’s Northside kitchen to dozens of older residents in Kerrville and he drives a van full of meals to their doors every week.

He builds relationships with the people he delivers to and knows their names, their families and their pets, who will greet him as he walks to their doors, Corbett said.

“It’s cool for me to see the elderly every day,” he said. “You get to know them.”

Local organizations like Meals on Wheels and the San Antonio Food Bank are feeling the impact from federal actions, including the ongoing government shutdown.

The San Antonio Food Bank has seen a tremendous increase in demand due to the shutdown as many federal workers go without a paycheck for weeks.

Nonprofits and other local programs are asking community members for help with donations and volunteers.

Community support could help in the short run, but nonprofits have noted that community need could outstrip philanthropists’ ability to keep up says Leilah Powell, who leads the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, or LISC, San Antonio.

“Nonprofits and their clients are seeing impacts in San Antonio,” Powell said. “We believe those impacts will have a ripple effect through the community.”

‘Calls started pouring in’

Meals on Wheels CEO Vinsen Faris has never seen a community response like this and he’s worked for the organization since 1988.

“There’s people out there who believe in Meals on Wheels,” he said. “We did not organize any type of fundraising efforts… This has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life.”

This year, Meals on Wheels was counting on federal dollars distributed by the state government to cover around 20% of its budget or $1.2 million.

Meals on Wheels workers prepare meals for frozen deliveries after hot meal production in the Grace Place kitchen on Tuesday. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

The Older Americans Act, first passed in 1965 by Congress, provides grants to states for community social services.

It costs about $2,200 a year to keep a person on Meals on Wheels, so the organization was looking at cutting services to at least 350 clients, which would save $770,000. 

Those were difficult calls to make, Faris said. He had already started to inform residents about the cuts as news of federal policy changes rolled across the nation.

“That’s when calls started pouring in,” Faris said. “One of the first people to call was Bill Miller [Bar-B-Q]. They said we can keep these going for three months.”

The San Antonio-based barbecue chain donated almost $200,000. Local foundations and private donors chipped in and spread the word, and thousands of dollars were raised by individual community members.

“We have enough,” Faris said. “That’s going to get us into the first quarter [of 2026] and then we’re going to have to see what happens.”

The federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1. That has created uncertainty for future funding as the U.S. Congress has not passed a budget for the coming year.

Food insecurity is also a much larger issue in Bexar County and the surrounding region. Meals on Wheels has a waitlist of over 900 community members. Before the COVID-19 pandemic the waitlist had between 200 to 300 people.

Faris estimated that there are thousands more that need the consistent food, social interaction and support provided by Meals on Wheels. It would cost the organization roughly $6 million over three years to meet that need.

“We think we should probably be serving 6,000 people and we’re not,” he said.

Government shutdown hits food banks

“The demand is outpacing the supply and the resources we’re getting right now are not adequate to meet that increase in demand,” said Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress could not agree on a budget for next year and many government functions shutdown at the beginning of the month. Delays in paychecks and benefits, which could worsen if there’s no resolution by the beginning of November, have increased demand for basic resources, like food.

Meals on Wheels workers prepare meals for frozen deliveries after hot meal production in the Grace Place kitchen on Tuesday. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

Cooper hopes Congress resolves those issues and gets funding flowing again.

“Hunger isn’t a red and blue issue,” he said. “It’s a red, white and blue issue.”

About 300,000 Bexar County residents receive Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, he said.

Those groups will still get their paychecks and benefits eventually, Cooper said, but there will be delays and uncertainty from the shutdown. 

“Ultimately it’s a delay, it’s not a decline in the benefit,” he said. “Those households will lean on the food bank to deliver in that SNAP gap.”

The San Antonio Food Bank has four weeks of food ready, he said, but it’s already weathered months of heightened demand during the summer when children don’t get regular meals at school and recent flooding response.

That means the nonprofit does not have the resources it usually does, particularly as it enters a busy Thanksgiving season.

The San Antonio-based grocery giant H-E-B is giving to about $5 million to food banks in Texas and has promised $1 million to Meals on Wheels programs.

That’s helpful, Cooper said, but needs are still great. Donations of food or money, volunteers and advocacy to decision-makers all go a long way.

“If anyone in the community can help,” he said. “We really need it.”

Adapting to headwinds

At a San Antonio Report CityFest event on Oct. 21, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai both noted the government shutdown and the wider trend of less federal support for local safety nets and programs.

“In the government shutdown, we have headwinds that are going to impact us pretty quickly, if not now,” Sakai said. “So local governments, be it the county or the city, are going to have to step up. I don’t see the federal government stepping up.”

Meals on Wheels delivery driver Lamarshall Corbett loads up a delivery van for his route on Tuesday. Credit: Amber Esparza / San Antonio Report

Sakai pointed to food and housing insecurity as critical areas where federal dollars supported local infrastructure. The region would need public-private partnerships, Sakai said, to fill in those gaps.

At a Bexar County Commissioners Court on Tuesday, officials discussed the needs of Meals on Wheels. Sakai plans to convene a summit to discuss food insecurity and figure out how to address the issue locally.

Nonprofits are grappling with new federal requirements and laws, personnel changes at federal agencies and a shifting funding landscape.

San Antonio Area Foundation officials say they have seen San Antonio’s safety net fraying and resources spread thin. The foundation launched a “All Hearts on Deck” campaign to raise attention and try to recoup funding after government cuts.

“The hard truth is that private philanthropy alone can’t fill the gap left by federal funding cuts. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make a powerful impact,” said Lisa Brunsvold, Chief Development Officer for the area foundation. “This is a moment for anyone with means to be bold and generous.”

Powell, with LISC, said that federal assistance for grant applications had been reduced and those applications often changed quickly. That creates funding uncertainty and means there are less resources available for programs meant to help people.

“There are pathways to responding and adapting,” Powell said, referring to increased collaboration and mergers. “Local nonprofits are already exploring them.”