THE NEW ECONOMY: Peace Meals BLOOMINGTON - Tom Close took a bite of pasta and pronounced it "good." The long-time Wood Hill Towers resident has noticed pasta meals and ham and beans are increasingly common in Peace Meal offerings. | Photo Gallery | Mission, Salavation Army see emptier shelves | More seniors using ride program

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"I think they've cut back on beef," said Close, who nevertheless enjoyed the rest of his noon-time meal of lettuce salad, pineapple, bread and butter and milk.

So did Arthur Kiper, saying "I like everything" as he applied dressing to his salad.

Barb Seagren, who oversees the Peace Meal program in four Central Illinois counties, including McLean, said high food expense and fluctuating fuel costs have necessitated the changes Close noticed.

"Nutritionally, people aren't impacted, but we might have ham and beans and chili more often when we used to have chicken or roast beef as an entrée," she said.

The menu changes go to show that when the economy falters, social service agencies are particularly hard hit.

That's because these agencies tend to budget lean even in good times. "We are already bare-bones," said Seagren, an assistant director of Peace Meal, which provides home-delivered and sit-down meals for the elderly and disabled.

Laura Dick, director of Meadows-based Show Bus, agrees with Seagren's assessment. Her agency, which provides rides for seniors and those with disabilities, went about $200,000 in debt before receiving a new source of state money recently.

"As the economy gets worse, our demand goes up," Dick said. "We got rid of the fat years ago; now, we're into bone."

Dick worries about funding at a time when the number of Show Bus riders has jumped 20 percent in McLean, Ford, Iroquois and Livingston counties.

"That was pure demand on all the routes, plus we started a new route in Pontiac," she said.

Without the new money from the Downstate Public Transportation Fund, Show Bus would have had trouble making ends meet. "We would have had to cut routes. I'm not sure we would have survived it," Dick said.

Now, she's gradually reinstating special medical rides cut back two years ago.

She continues to worry about rising insurance costs, workers' compensation and fuel costs. Dick underestimated by about $20,000 how much it would cost to run 29 buses in the fiscal year that ended June 30.

"No one had any idea that gas would be $4 per gallon," she said.

Seagren has to worry not only about high fuel costs but rising food costs, which have jumped about 20 percent over the past year.

The agency had to cut two full-time and one part-time jobs in a 14-county service area and "we've also reduced some hours," she said.

Peace Meal served 91,597 meals in McLean County over the past fiscal year, about 60 percent being delivered to homes and the rest provided at meal sites such as Woodhill Towers.

Fluctuating costs "have diminished our ability to get new people" to deliver meals and also increased costs of transporting food from the Bloomington kitchen for distribution to DeWitt and Livingston counties, Seagren said.

"If gas had remained near $4 a gallon," she said, "we would have been hurt big time."

Contact Peace Meals at (800) 543-1770. Contact Show Bus at (309) 747-2454 or (800) 525-2454.