Documentary showcases Senior Services Plus’s diminishing funding

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ALTON – As the state of Illinois continues to run without a true budget, local organizations have felt the pressure of diminishing funding.

Chicago-based independent documentary filmmaker Liz Kaar, along with In These Times and Kartemquin Films, focused the fourth episode of her “Stranded by the State” series on Senior Services Plus in Alton.

Described as the largest direct service provider for seniors in a seven-county area, Senior Services Plus’s mission is to provide opportunities and resources to individuals at any age.  However, the intense budget cuts that have affected numerous human service organizations around the state has made it difficult for the non-profit organization to fulfill this goal.

Jonathan Becker, Executive Director at Senior Services Plus, believes that the cuts made to the organization’s Meals on Wheels program could ultimately starve its recipients.

“The state of Illinois budget impasse is just crushing people,” Becker said. “We used to deliver one hot meal per day per person, so that’s five meals a week. Last December, we were told that we would only be paid to provide meals four days a week. Essentially, what we were asked to do, because we did not have the money because we were not getting paid, was just slowly starving people. These are people that are poor, and I guarantee you, on average, these folks take that meal they get and cut it in half to save it for supper.”

In efforts to make sure that their Meals on Wheels recipients are fed, the organization cut down deliveries to continue to provide five meals a week. One delivery five meals per week ensures that the recipients are fed, however, the safety check that once occurred with deliveries is now nearly non-existent.

“Sixty percent of the seniors that we serve have no family members in the area, so the Meals on Wheels driver is spending 30 seconds to a minute asking ‘how are you, how are you doing?’ and that’s the only contact they have for months at a time,” Becker said. “Instead of five days a week, that’s cut down to one. We’ve found people… I mean, we’ve had people laying on the ground who have fallen over the weekend.”

The documentary also brings viewers into the homes of two Meals on Wheels recipients, including Pauline Stone Wells, 96.

Wells has been unable to cook for herself since she fell and broke her hip. Along with memory problems that have caused her to accidentally burn pans after she simply forgot she had been cooking, the idea of eating a balanced meal was thrown out the window. With the meals that Senior Services Plus provides, she can maintain a healthy diet while living independently in the home she’s had for almost 50 years.

“If they didn’t have that Meals on Wheels, I could go to a nursing home where they would bring my meals in front of me, and how many people want to do that?” she said. “It’s just too hard, it’s such a big change. If you’re in your own home, you get up when you want to. It’s a happy thought that I can be here until the Lord wants me somewhere else.”

In a tragic truth to the current budget crisis, the tax dollars honest working people pay into the state with each paycheck seem to be going to other places instead of taking care of the growing population of elderly people.

“All my life, I’ve worked, I taught and I felt confident all the time that my tax money was going in to an area where I would have the benefits that were expected and I was happy to pay that in,” she said. “It’s just unimaginable that now the government is not keeping their word. It makes you wonder if you can trust people anymore at all.  It’s such a sad thing.”

The documentary was executive produced by Gordon Quinn and Betsy Steinberg. Motion graphics and additional editing work was completed by Jake Myers. Additional editors for In These Times included Christopher Hass, Miles Kampf-Lassin and Jessica Stites.

The series was produced with funding from the Chicago Digital Media Production Fund, a project of the Voqal Fund administered by Chicago Filmmakers.

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