Meals on Wheels 'Always Delivers'

Ron visited Friday with Meals on Wheels People recipients and volunteers in downtown Portland, telling them he will fight back hard against proposed Trump budget cuts for the venerable and vital nutrition program.

“I’m not going to let people take out a big knife and slash away at Meals on Wheels,” he said at a news conference at Meals on Wheels People’s Elm Court Center, a site where meals are prepared for delivery and where seniors can drop in for lunch and activities.

“These proposals that they are trotting out to cut Meals on Wheels are not just heartless, they are brainless,” the senator said of the deep reductions to the agency that funds the Older Americans Act, which provides key resources for programs like Meals on Wheels.

Ron said the proposed 16 percent cut to the Health and Human Services Department is short-sighted and cruel because so many seniors in Oregon and nationwide are balancing bills on an economic tightrope.

Meals on Wheels is crucial, he said, because regularly good nutrition and visits by volunteers who can check on seniors’ health and living conditions allows older Americans to live independently in their homes.

“I’m telling that Trump crowd back in Washington DC that Meals on Wheels is a service that always delivers,” Ron said.

Before visiting Meals on Wheels People last week, Ron also spoke at the TechFest NW conference in Portland about the investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 election and the importance of fighting back against increased threats to Americans’ privacy.

And Ron held his 804th town hall – in Hood River County.