By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Lead Reporter - Salina Post
In between the Salina Police Department and the Saline County/City of Salina building stands a towering stone-based structure that the Saline County Senior Services calls home.
From January to March this year, five staff and dozens of volunteers distributed 28,501, with 15,932 for Meals on Wheels and 12,569 served in the dining room.
Meals on Wheels serves homebound residents alongside their fuzzy family members through a Meals on Wheels Pet Program.
"Our main thing is to keep seniors home and active," said Rosie Walter, the Saline County Senior Services director. "We are able to feed them nutritious meals, whether it be here [the Senior Center] or in their homes because they're homebound. My main goal is to keep them out of facilities for as long as possible and let them stay home."
Although the Salina Senior Center operates this way regularly today, it didn't begin that way. Saline County took over the center in 2018 from the North Central-Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging (NCFHAAA).
Walter said once the county took over operations at the Senior Center, it only began to grow. NCFHAAA started the Meals on Wheels program previously, and Walter said Saline County saw that program as an asset.
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"We didn't want to lose Meals on Wheels — we can't afford to do that for our seniors," Walter said. "So the county stepped in and they had already funded a big hunk of the Area Agency on Aging, but their population was very small, so those funds covered most of their expenses, but not everything. Food costs were a lot cheaper back then."
Today, staff and volunteers can regularly serve between 200 and 400 meals daily in-house, with hundreds more through Meals on Wheels.
In early April, Walter provided a budget update to Saline County Commissioners, detailing that 90% of the meals served to seniors are on the subsidized or reduced meal program.
The subsidization funnels through a federal funding program, trickling down to the regional Area Agencies on Aging and into the budgets of local county senior services.
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For Saline County Senior Services, this could be a free meal in person at the Senior Center or a $4 contribution from seniors for Meals on Wheels, making the program more affordable to seniors on a fixed income.
Senior Services also receives various donations throughout the year for its programs.
Although the subsidization allows the meals to be affordable, food prices have only increased, leading Saline County Senior Services to request a 21% increase in funding for 2025.
Walter said the increase stems from a new food contract and the request for a new position at Senior Services — an Activities Coordinator position.
This increase caused Saline County Commissioner Robert Vidricksen some supposed sticker shock. He pushed back on the budget increase during a budget study session on Tuesday, May 21.
"I realize donations are important, but I don't think the people who donate really are trying to subsidize our budget. I think they're trying to expand programs or helping to buy equipment," Vidricksen said. "I think you got to raise your prices for the non-subsidized stuff. You can't go to McDonald's for less than $11. We have a number of people that aren't seniors that use your facility, which is good, but we're subsidizing them the other way around."
Walter said that most seniors are in retirement, meaning a fixed income where many do not have the opportunity to increase their regular earnings, leading Walter's focus on the budget increase.
"We are spread too thin," Walter said. "When you're talking about 700 people, between Meals on Wheels and those that come in-house... the others that come in for exercise and all the different activities."
"When you're interacting with that many people, as they come through our doors or on the phone, we are spread way too thin."