In early April 2025, amid rumors that U.S. President Donald Trump was planning a large military parade for the U.S. Army's anniversary,
(Facebook user Pamela Hollar)
One Facebook user posted a screenshot of a news article about rumors of a military parade with the caption: "Meanwhile, they've cut Meals on Wheels and children's cancer research funding."
Claims about Meals on Wheels facing funding cuts also circulated on X (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived). Snopes readers also emailed us about the claim.
It was not clear whether Musk or anyone else ordered a shutdown of Meals on Wheels. The claims likely originated from an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services on March 27, 2025, that it would restructure and "streamline" several bodies, including the Administration for Community Living — which historically administered federal funding to Meals on Wheels.
Snopes has reached out to HHS to clarify its plans for federal funding for Meals on Wheels following the March 27 announcement and we await a reply. We also reached out to DOGE, of which Musk is the public face, to ask whether the billionaire or the department ordered a shutdown of the program. We will update this article if we receive a response.
We also reached out to the bodies that HHS said would "integrate" the functions of the ACL — the Administration for Children and Families, the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services — for any information they could provide about the future of Meals on Wheels' federal funding. The ACL and CMS referred us to HHS.
No indication of how HHS restructure affects Meals on Wheels
Some social media users connected the claims of funding cuts to DOGE or Musk. The connection likely came from the first line of the HHS news release announcing a departmental restructuring in line with a Trump executive order, titled "Implementing The President's 'Department of Government Efficiency' Workforce Optimization Initiative."
DOGE, which has been spearheaded by Musk, has actively promoted its role in cutting government waste and is therefore often held responsible for programs like Meals on Wheels being cut. However, without comment from Musk or DOGE, it was not possible to say whether either of them ordered any such policy. Neither had posted anything about Meals on Wheels on their X accounts as of this writing.
Regardless, the future of federal funding for the Meals on Wheels public-private partnership was uncertain at the time of this writing. Federal funding for Meals on Wheels historically came from an HHS body called the Administration for Community Living, according to a Meals on Wheels spokesperson.
The aforementioned HHS restructure included the integration of "critical programs that support older adults and people with disabilities" under the ACL into other existing HHS bodies, essentially dissolving the ACL.
Meanwhile, numerous news media outlets have reported on the uncertainty surrounding the future of programs like Meals on Wheels following HHS layoffs.
Meals on Wheels' concern for community-level funding
It was unclear from the HHS release whether "critical programs" included Meals on Wheels or what exactly would happen to the program post-restructuring.
Jenny Young, Meals on Wheels America's chief of staff, said via email on April 2, 2025, that federal funding reached community-level Meals on Wheels organizations as follows:
The federal funding has traditionally flowed from the Administration for Community Living's Administration on Aging (all within the Department of Health & Human Services) to State Units on Aging. From there, states distribute the funding to Area Agencies on Aging before it reaches roughly 5,000 community-based senior nutrition providers in the form of reimbursements for services delivered.
Community-level Meals on Wheels organizations, rather than Meals on Wheels America, actually deliver meals. Meals on Wheels America is the national leadership organization.
The funding that flowed through the ACL prior to the HHS restructure was appropriated by Congress through the Older Americans Act, the "primary federal statute for the delivery of social and nutrition services for older persons." On March 14, 2025, Congress passed a continuing resolution to extend authorities and funding for aging services programs in the act for a full year.
Barring an act of Congress to repeal the continuing resolution, appropriated funding — $1.058 billion in fiscal year 2024 for the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program and, following the resolution, the same in 2025 — must be paid out. The OAA Nutrition Program includes funding for senior congregate and home-delivered meal programs as well as the Nutrition Service Incentive Program that helps to cover food purchases. Young confirmed that community-level Meals on Wheels organizations do receive OAA funding.
Funding from the Older Americans Act Nutrition Program – the network's primary source of federal funding – covers 37% of what it takes to collectively serve more than 2 million seniors annually. The exact percentage that a local provider receives varies, as does its sources of federal funding and each state administers a unique funding formula.
Young's 37% estimate is a slight increase from figures published in 2017 that showed that local Meals on Wheels organizations relied on about 35% federal funding.
Therefore, while Meals on Wheels had received no indication of what the HHS restructure might mean for federal funding at the time of this writing, Young said it was vital that OAA funds are allowed to flow for the program to continue:
We don't yet know where the Administration for Aging (which used to live in ACL) or the administration of the Older Americans Act will land. The significant reduction in workforce is alarming though as we know the regional offices and individuals tasked with administering funds no longer exist. Our biggest priority is that the Older Americans Act stays intact, and that there are no disruptions to the administration or flow of funding. Local Meals on Wheels providers are already operating on razer [sic] thin margins and 1 in 3 already has a waitlist for services. They cannot absorb the blow of not receiving their expected OAA reimbursements on time and in full.
Meals on Wheels said its local community partners serve 251 million meals annually to 2 million seniors across the U.S.