Rising gas prices are creating a financial squeeze on a program that delivers meals to homebound residents across Manitowoc and Kewaunee counties — and the strain is beginning to show in both the volunteer pool and the program's bottom line.
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The ADRC of the Lakeshore operates Meals on Wheels in the two-county area, serving people who may not be able to prepare or get food on their own.
The program caters and packages meals before volunteers deliver them directly to recipients at home. But as fuel costs climb, maintaining enough drivers to cover every route has become an increasing challenge.
"It's extra stress on an already stressed system. Volunteers are at a minimum right now, we have open routes," Wendy Hutterer said.
Hutterer, director of the ADRC of the Lakeshore, said volunteers who deliver meals receive a federal mileage reimbursement rate for every mile they drive.
Currently, drivers are reimbursed 72 cents per mile — up from 67 cents per mile in 2024, about 57 cents in 2020, and around 53 cents in 2017.
But while that rate rises with gas prices, Hutterer said the higher reimbursements come directly at the expense of the program's ability to fund meals.
"When gas prices go up, then the federal reimbursement rate goes up, which takes more of our dollars, which then leaves us with less to provide meals for the homebound," Hutterer said.
Hutterer said the reimbursement does not fully cover volunteers' travel costs, which deters some from signing up. As a result, ADRC staff members are now stepping in to fill routes that go uncovered. Some routes still do not have a dedicated volunteer assigned to them every day.
"We now have routes that do not have an assigned volunteer every single day," Hutterer said.
The financial pressure doesn't stop at the volunteer level. The ADRC is also absorbing higher transportation costs from its caterers — a ripple effect of rising fuel prices that further depletes funds available to the Meals on Wheels program.
"Even the food getting to them, all that transportation of food to the grocery store, or wherever, increases our caterers cost which translates to us also," Hutterer said.
"It far exceeds just putting the gas in your vehicle," Hutterer said.
Hutterer said the program's impact reaches well beyond a delivered meal. For many recipients, it is one of their only regular human connections.
"These meals meet so many greater needs ... reducing social isolation, getting a healthy nutritious meal into the home, and also that safety check because some of these people don't have anyone else checking in on them," Hutterer said.
She also pointed to broader public health implications of keeping people fed and in their homes.
"If somebody is able to stay in their home, it reduces the likelihood that they'll be in long term care at some point," Hutterer said.
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