{"id":351087,"date":"2025-11-02T20:43:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/351087\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T20:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:43:14","slug":"can-local-donations-keep-up-with-federal-changes-in-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/351087\/","title":{"rendered":"Can local donations keep up with federal changes in San Antonio?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, Meals on Wheels was scheduled to lose $1.2 million<\/a> in federal funding, which would have drastically cut deliveries down.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely would have hurt,\u201d said LaMarshall Corbett, a Meals on Wheels delivery driver. \u201cSince it\u2019s back up, it\u2019s lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corbett is the conduit between the nonprofit\u2019s Northside kitchen to dozens of older residents in Kerrville and he drives a van full of meals to their doors every week.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool for me to see the elderly every day,\u201d he said. \u201cYou get to know them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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. <\/p>\n

Nonprofits and other local programs are asking community members for help with donations and volunteers.<\/p>\n

Community support could help in the short run, but nonprofits have noted that community need could outstrip philanthropists\u2019 ability to keep up says Leilah Powell, who leads the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, or LISC, San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u201cNonprofits and their clients are seeing impacts in San Antonio,\u201d Powell said. \u201cWe believe those impacts will have a ripple effect through the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Calls started pouring in\u2019<\/p>\n

Meals on Wheels CEO Vinsen Faris has never seen a community response like this and he\u2019s worked for the organization since 1988.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s people out there who believe in Meals on Wheels,\u201d he said. \u201cWe did not organize any type of fundraising efforts\u2026 This has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"\"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<\/p>\n

The Older Americans Act<\/a>, first passed in 1965 by Congress, provides grants to states for community social services.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when calls started pouring in,\u201d Faris said. \u201cOne of the first people to call was Bill Miller [Bar-B-Q]. They said we can keep these going for three months.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have enough,\u201d Faris said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to get us into the first quarter [of 2026] and then we\u2019re going to have to see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think we should probably be serving 6,000 people and we\u2019re not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Government shutdown hits food banks<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand is outpacing the supply and the resources we\u2019re getting right now are not adequate to meet that increase in demand,\u201d said Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank.<\/p>\n

Republicans and Democrats in Congress could not agree on a budget for next year and many government functions shutdown<\/a> at the beginning of the month. Delays in paychecks and benefits, which could worsen if there\u2019s no resolution by the beginning of November, have increased demand for basic resources, like food.<\/p>\n

\"\"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<\/p>\n

Cooper hopes Congress resolves those issues and gets funding flowing again.<\/p>\n

\u201cHunger isn\u2019t a red and blue issue,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a red, white and blue issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 300,000 Bexar County residents receive Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits, he said. <\/p>\n

Those groups will still get their paychecks and benefits eventually, Cooper said, but there will be delays and uncertainty from the shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately it\u2019s a delay, it\u2019s not a decline in the benefit,\u201d he said. \u201cThose households will lean on the food bank to deliver in that SNAP gap.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Antonio Food Bank has four weeks of food ready, he said, but it\u2019s already weathered months of heightened demand during the summer when children don\u2019t get regular meals at school and recent flooding response.<\/p>\n

That means the nonprofit does not have the resources it usually does, particularly as it enters a busy Thanksgiving season.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s helpful, Cooper said, but needs are still great. Donations of food or money<\/a>, volunteers and advocacy to decision-makers all go a long way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf anyone in the community can help,\u201d he said. \u201cWe really need it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adapting to headwinds<\/p>\n

At a San Antonio Report CityFest event<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the government shutdown, we have headwinds that are going to impact us pretty quickly, if not now,\u201d Sakai said. \u201cSo local governments, be it the county or the city, are going to have to step up. I don\u2019t see the federal government stepping up.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Nonprofits are grappling with new federal requirements and laws, personnel changes at federal agencies and a shifting funding landscape. <\/p>\n

San Antonio Area Foundation officials say they have seen San Antonio\u2019s safety net fraying and resources spread thin. The foundation launched a \u201cAll Hearts on Deck\u201d campaign to raise attention and try to recoup funding after government cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hard truth is that private philanthropy alone can\u2019t fill the gap left by federal funding cuts. But that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t make a powerful impact,\u201d said Lisa Brunsvold, Chief Development Officer for the area foundation. \u201cThis is a moment for anyone with means to be bold and generous.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are pathways to responding and adapting,\u201d Powell said, referring to increased collaboration and mergers. \u201cLocal nonprofits are already exploring them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, Meals on Wheels was scheduled to lose $1.2 million in federal funding, which would have drastically…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":351088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7288,122220,10180,171908,26865,49089,23770,93913,93914,97333,53773,256,7202,14063,7203,6974,7167,358,7453,3187,7593,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,171909,7594],"class_list":{"0":"post-351087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bexar-county","10":"tag-bill-miller-bar-b-q","11":"tag-donations","12":"tag-eric-cooper","13":"tag-federal-funding","14":"tag-government-shutdown","15":"tag-h-e-b","16":"tag-leilah-powell","17":"tag-lisc-san-antonio","18":"tag-meals-on-wheels","19":"tag-peter-sakai","20":"tag-philanthropy","21":"tag-san-antonio","22":"tag-san-antonio-food-bank","23":"tag-sanantonio","24":"tag-snap","25":"tag-snap-benefits","26":"tag-texas","27":"tag-top-story","28":"tag-tx","29":"tag-typefeature","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-united-states-of-america","32":"tag-unitedstates","33":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","34":"tag-us","35":"tag-usa","36":"tag-vinsen-faris","37":"tag-wc-1000-1500"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115482055090320296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}