Funding sunset prompts limits to senior meals at the Village Table Café

JEFFERSON – The end of pandemic-era grant programs has caused program administrators to put some limits on subsidized senior meals at the Village Table Café in order to keep the site open year-round.
Representatives from the Ashtabula County Community Action Agency (ACCAA), which administers senior congregate meal sites in the county, spoke to a packed room at the Village Table over lunch on Wednesday, Jan. 21, in what they characterized as an effort to head off misinformation.
Alissa Holdson, ACCAA executive director, began by clarifying that the site is not closing, but the rollback of $110,000 in grant funding – an effective 47-percent cut – means they’ve had to impose a daily, 41-person limit on subsidized meals, and those meals will only be served between 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
During 2025, ACCAA served 22,000 subsidized senior congregate meals at three sites: the Conneaut Human Resource Center, the Village Table Café and the Ashtabula Senior Center, according to Holdson.
The nonprofit social service agency made spending cuts where it could, she said, shuttering the Conneaut site, which had the poorest attendance, and leaving a position unfilled following a staff departure.
These reductions will mean ACCAA can serve approximately 14,000 subsidized senior meals over the course of 2026 at Ashtabula and Jefferson now that the new rules are in place, according to Holdson.
This will mean serving about two-thirds as many meals, but with only marginally more than half of the 2025 budget.
Katie Lamson, ACCAA director of senior services, said there will be 41 daily seats, subject to possible later revision, for fully-subsidized meals at the Village Table Café. Seniors over 60 can sign up for a seat beginning the previous Friday, with cancelations or unclaimed seats available for signup until the day the meal is served.
Subsidized senior meals will be served from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and diners are requested, but not required, to make a $4 donation. People over 60 arriving between 12:30-2 p.m., or in excess of the 41 seats, will have to pay $6.50 for the posted daily meal.
Anyone 60 and under can have the posted daily meal for $7.50, according to Lamson. There is also an à la carte menu at the Village Table Café, with posted prices available for everyone.
The menu lists several salads in the $9 range, sandwiches around the same price point, soup for about $3, burgers at $8.75-$9.25 and Broaster chicken ranging from $7.99 for a two-piece dark meat dinner, to $33 for 16 pieces of white meat.
Administrators are still considering whether to accept call-in or proxy signups, which will depend on how quickly seats are claimed by people signing up in person, according to Holdson.
Senior congregate meals through ACCAA are paid for with a combination of federal Older Americans Act Title III and Nutrition Services Incentive Program funding. These monies move from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, pass through the state to the Area Agency on Aging, then to ACCAA, according to Holdson – who clarified that no local property tax funds go to the Village Table Café.
County Senior Levy funds do help to pay for home-delivered meals through the local Meals on Wheels Program, she said.
These grant funds only pay for food, Holdson said. Any other program costs – payroll, equipment and other overhead – are paid out of voluntary donations paid by diners or other supporters.
ACCAA has also faced increasing difficulty making ends meet since Congress has not passed a full budget and has operated instead on the basis of continuing resolutions, which has meant flat funding for several years in the face of rising costs due to inflation, according to Holdson.
The Village Table Café is intended to fill gaps and serve seniors directly, Holdson said. The changes are meant to keep it open year-round.
A fundraising campaign is in the works, Lamson added, which will try to soften the blow, though Holdson said she was skeptical ACCAA would be able to secure $110,000 in donations. She said the nonprofit is also looking into any available grants to offset the loss of revenue.