Metro Meals on Wheels coming up short

Toni Randolph
St. Paul, Minn.

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Warm meals
Volunteers at Meals on Wheels deliver warm meals and subway sandwiches to seniors who can't cook for themselves. All of the volunteers use their own cars and most of them donate their mileage.
MPR Photo/Ambar Espinoza

Metro Meals on Wheels says it may fall $115,000 short of its budget projections for the fiscal year that ends this month.

Metro Meals on Wheels director Patrick Rowan said corporate donations were down by $75,000 and individual donations were down by $40,000.

Rowan said the agency will make up the projected shortfall by tapping into its savings.

"We're going to show a significant operating loss for 2008. We're looking forward to 2009 being different. If it's not different in the first 6 weeks or so, we're going to have to make some drastic changes in the way we do business," Rowan said.

Rowan said further economic decline could lead to staff cuts. Meals on Wheels serves meals to about 4,000 people in the metro area every day.

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