(AP) California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first-in-the-nation plan to pay for and deliver three meals a day to vulnerable seniors during the coronavirus crisis has less than two weeks to launch before federal funding runs out, government documents show.
It wasn’t clear how many, if any, cities and counties would be delivering meals in substantial numbers by May 10, when money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency is set to end. Also unclear is how much FEMA has budgeted for the program, though it told The Associated Press there is no preset limit.
FEMA says it will cover three-quarters of the cost of preparing and delivering the food made by local restaurants, which could quickly soar into tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in the nation’s most populous state, which has 5.7 million seniors. The state, cities and counties would pick up the rest of the cost, but local governments would also get an infusion of cash from sales taxes they collect on the meals.
To keep the federal money flowing, the Newsom administration must give a “detailed justification” for continuing the so-called emergency feeding program, FEMA said in an April 10 letter.
“While it is anticipated that, upon successful program execution, the state will request an extension, there is no guarantee it will be granted,” the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services acknowledged in a planning document.
