With a bulging bag of food in hand, John Mullen knocked on the door of an apartment in Portland and waited for Steve Hodgkin to call out for him to enter.

Mullen headed straight for the kitchen, where he unpacked a week’s worth of meals, applesauce, milk and bread, then stepped into the living room to chat with Hodgkin. They talked about how Hodgkin was feeling and if he was staying cool enough on the hottest day of the year.

Their routine has become a familiar one in the year and a half Mullen has been dropping off meals for Hodgkin as a volunteer with Meals on Wheels. Hodgkin, who has multiple sclerosis and is on Social Security disability, said he enjoys his short visits with Mullen and appreciates having premade meals on the days it’s too difficult to shop for groceries and cook for himself.

“If I couldn’t go to the store, I’d have to order something,” Hodgkin, 59, said. “I only have so much money for that.”

Hodgkin is among the more than 10,000 older and disabled Mainers who receive weekly deliveries through Meals on Wheels, a program funded in part by the federal government and run in Maine by agencies on aging. But there are still many who qualify for the program but have to wait months or years for a spot.

As agencies try to find additional funding to serve more people, they face uncertainty about the future of the roughly $6 million in annual federal funding that supports Meals on Wheels in Maine. Congress has yet to reauthorize the Older Americans Act, which funds meal programs and other services to support aging Americans. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, recently joined a bipartisan group of senators to reintroduced legislation that would reauthorize OAA programs through 2030, but its path to passage remains unclear.

“Programs established by the Older Americans Act play a vital role in supporting the health, well-being, and independence of our nation’s seniors,” Collins said in a statement. “This bipartisan bill reaffirms our commitment to older Americans and ensures that these critical programs will continue to meet their needs.”

Leaders of Maine’s five agencies on aging, which provide Meals on Wheels and other services for seniors, this spring led a push to pass the Older Mainers Act, which asked for $9.75 million to clear the Meals on Wheels waitlist, provide case management for older adults and increase caregiver support.

There are more than 700 older Mainers on waitlists for Meals on Wheels, which has been shown to reduce hospitalizations, emergency room visits and nursing home placements, according to a study by Brown University.

In testimony in support of the Older Mainers Act, sponsor Rep. Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston, highlighted the “immense need” for support for older Mainers. Maine is the oldest state in the country, with 23% of residents 65 or older. But more than half of single older Mainers lack the resources to support their basic needs, she said.

Ultimately, the Legislature approved $3 million through the general fund to support the programs and services provided by the agencies on aging.

Megan Walton, CEO of the Southern Maine Agency on Aging, said she is thrilled about the additional state funding and hopes the momentum behind the Older Mainers Act will carry forward and lead to more funding for programs she sees as critical to supporting people as they age in their communities.

If the Older Mainers Act had been fully funded, it would have allowed for more than 336,000 additional meals to be provided across the state.

“It’s really a great challenge here in the state of Maine because so many people rely on these vital programs and services, and the demand for those services really went up in the pandemic,” Walton said. “We found people who qualified for the services that we didn’t know before, and we want to keep them on those programs. But we’re struggling in the current state because we can’t meet the need as it stands today.”

A LIFELINE FOR SENIORS

For the people who receive Meals on Wheels, the program is about more than a nutritious meal. It’s an opportunity for volunteers to do a wellness check — there have been situations where volunteers find people who have fallen or need immediate medical attention — and to notify the agency if something seems amiss.

Clients who live alone and have limited or no ability to easily leave their homes look forward to both the meals and the visits from volunteers, said Betsy Sawyer-Manter, president and CEO of SeniorsPlus, the agency that serves Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.

“The Meals on Wheels driver may be the only person that individual sees all day long,” she said. “They’re hungry for conversation. They want to talk about the day’s events.”

SeniorsPlus serves Meals on Wheels to 506 people across the tri-county area but has another 190 people on a waitlist. Seeing so many people on that list is “heartbreaking,” Sawyer-Manter said. The agency encourages people on the list to apply for food stamps, visit their local food pantry and reach out to churches for help while they wait to get Meals on Wheels.

“How do you tell an elderly man that there is no money to help him, to feed him, after he has worked hard his whole life contributing to the community and society?” SeniorsPlus board Chair Holly Zielinski asked lawmakers during a public hearing on the Older Mainers Act, which she said would prevent “older adults from going to bed hungry.”

In Aroostook County, where 26% of the population is over 65, more funding is needed to address the growing demand for Meals on Wheels and other services through Aroostook Agency on Aging, executive director Joy Barresi Saucier told lawmakers. By 2035, 1 in 3 county residents will be over 65, she said.

“Because of this population trend, extensive community support is required now and must be continually developed to improve the health and support the independent living of our residents to reduce the risk of institutionalization,” Barresi Saucier said.

Staff members at the Eastern Maine Agency on Aging are always looking for ways to raise money so that it can clear its Meals on Wheels waitlist, which currently stands at nearly 350 people. The agency serves clients in some of the most rural areas of the state in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Hancock and Washington counties, many of whom are homebound or cannot cook for themselves, said director of communications Christopher Hill.

“They have social circles that have shrunk and don’t have families in the area,” he said. “This program is very much their lifeline.”

Hill said the agency sometimes receives donations that help move people off the waitlist. But it costs about $2,000 to feed someone for a year, he said, and it’s hard to come up with the funding to make that happen.

“It’s really difficult to know that your neighbors are in need and you can’t help them,” he said.

MORE THAN MEALS

As parents dropped off children for camp and people arrived for fitness classes at the Westbrook Community Center, Meals on Wheels volunteers were busy packing meals in a small kitchen area.

In the hallways, tables pushed against the walls held individual bags of food sorted by delivery route. The volunteer drivers used rolling carts to bring the food to their cars, then set out to delivery routes that crisscross Portland, Westbrook and Gorham. Meals for clients on Peaks Island are dropped off at the ferry, then delivered by a volunteer on the island.

Debbie Almeida, who runs the Meals on Wheels site, said there are now about 200 clients in the three towns. Since the pandemic, the client base has increased. But, for now, the Westbrook site is able to keep up with the demand.

Almeida said it wouldn’t be possible to do that without the 25 volunteers who pack and deliver meals, then check on the clients.

“Our volunteers get very connected to their client base. They build relationships with them,” she said.

Mullen, the volunteer who delivers in Portland, signed up to help after retiring from Cheverus High School, where he was a teacher and principal for 39 years. He knew he wanted to give back in a meaningful way and has come to appreciate the connections he’s made with the people he delivers food to every Tuesday.

Mullen has come to know their stories and health challenges. He sees how critical the meals are, especially for people with mobility restrictions, and said any funding cut for the program would be devastating.

“If they did lose the service, they’d be severely impacted,” he said. “They’re alone and can’t provide for themselves.”