WASHINGTON, DC (MPG) – Representative Ami Bera, M.D. (CA-07) announced on July 26, that he secured $750,000 in the House Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations package to support Meals on Wheels in the Sacramento region.

Funding for the project was included in the FY23 House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations bill, which passed the House of Representatives last week. The THUD bill now head to the Senate for consideration.

“Since entering Congress, I have been a steadfast supporter of critical community programs like Meals on Wheels,” said Representative Bera. “I am proud to announce that I secured $750,000 in federal funding that will support the Meals on Wheels Kitchen Project to deliver more nutritious meals to seniors living throughout Sacramento County. I will continue to work in a bipartisan manner to ensure this critical funding gets signed into law.”

“With the Community Project Funding, Meals on Wheels by ACC (MoW) will be able to move meal production from Mississippi to California. Moving production to California means we can source meal ingredients from local farms, make immediate changes to our menus, offer culturally diverse meals, and serve more seniors,” said Kevin McAllister, Executive Director of Meals on Wheels Sacramento.

The funding would be used to purchase food service equipment for a commercial kitchen in the Sacramento area that would allow them to produce locally sourced, freshly prepared meals to Sacramento seniors and expand their program capacity. This project is a good use of taxpayer dollars because it will allow them to meet the growing demand for nutritious meals by a growing senior population in Sacramento and expand the number of meals they serve through collaborations with local farmers and producers. Eliminating the use of a vendor who produces meals out of state will save taxpayer dollars and support local farmers.

Representative Bera has been a longtime support of the Meals on Wheels program. Amid a government sequester in 2013, Representative Bera donated a portion of his monthly pay to Meals on Wheels.

In total, Representative Bera secured more than $32 million to support 15 community funding projects for the Sacramento-region in the FY 2023 House appropriations bills.