YOUNGSTOWN — State and federal funding cuts have left local service agencies, and those they serve, unclear about the future.

But one program is not on the chopping block. Direction Home of Eastern Ohio’s Get Out and Dine Program is actually on track to expand and keep more bellies and hearts full. Direction Home serves clients in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties.

“The whole point is to get out and dine, to sit in the restaurant and not stay at home and be lonely,” said Diana Murar. “So the point is that they want you to eat a good meal, and to socialize.”

Murar, of Boardman, is 75 and lives alone. She said she is a weekly regular at Belleria in Struthers, where she’ll often meet friends or relatives for a meal.

She has a big family, so she is rarely alone for dinner, but knowing there is at least one meal covered each week helps with her very tight fixed income, she said.

“And it’s hard to cook for just one person, then I have leftovers for three or four days of the same thing,” she said. “There’s only a certain menu each restaurant has because they’re only going to be reimbursed so much, but they’re all very good meals. I haven’t been disappointed.”

Murar has been a participant in the program that provides five free meals per month for at least six years. She said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, it also came in handy because clients were allowed to use their card for carryout or delivery.

She said the program is also good for the local restaurants that participate.

“They get more people and more regulars, so they can plan on who to hire. So it helps the economy too,” she said.

Murar had heard rumors that the program may be discontinued. After all, Direction Home had reduced the number of monthly meals from seven to five, and that was before budget cuts to social service organizations started coming down hard and fast from Washington, D.C. and Columbus this year.

But Cassandra Valentini, Chief of Community Development and Public Relations for Direction Home of Eastern Ohio, said the program is on solid footing.

“We have no plans of stopping the program,” she said. “It’s the most popular program and our restaurants love it too because they get people in the doors.

Funded through the Older Americans Act, the Title III program distributes federal funds to Ohio, which then spreads them to the 12 regional Area Agencies on Aging across the state, based upon senior citizen populations.

Direction Home and its 11 counterparts provide a wide variety of services for seniors across Ohio. Much of its programming is focused on helping them stay in their homes and maintain a good quality of life.

“We are constantly fighting to let people know about the things we do and that they are important,” Valentini said.

The agency’s government relations person is constantly working with state and federal legislators to secure and maintain funding.

“Providing somebody with a little support to keep them in their home, rather than in a nursing facility — not only is it where they want to be, but in the long run it saves the state and federal government money,” she said.

Making sure seniors have regular access to healthy and affordable meals is just one tool in their belt.

“There are so many studies that show that nutrition and socializing affect healthy aging,” Valentini said. “We have a story of a lady who was sitting by herself, and one lady came in and they had the same walker and sat together instead of apart, and now they go to the aquatic therapy program at the Y together.”

The program is for residents 75 and older, with high nutritional needs, low incomes, and those who are widowed or living in rural communities with limited access to food resources.

“We want to get the people who need it the most, so we always add the people who meet the highest need threshold to the program,” Valentini said.

Right now, Valentini said there are 1,900 seniors with Get Out and Dine cards, from Cortland south through Columbiana County. By the end of July, Valentini said, there will be 500 more. And she said there is a waiting list of more than 2,000. She said they stopped accepting new additions to the waiting list last month.

Some don’t use it at all, and Valentini said they can lose the card if they don’t use it.

If a card is inactive for 60 days, the agency will revoke it and give it to someone on the waiting list.

“The people who receive it mid-year, they are the most excited,” she said. “They cannot wait to get out and use those cards.”

Residents must reapply annually for their dine-out cards.

The program is affiliated with several locally-owned restaurants.

The website list includes Belleria in Boardman and Struthers; Frank’s Cafe in Boardman and Austintown; Landmark Restaurants in Youngstown and Hubbard; Almost Home in Sebring; BB Rooner’s in Salem; Das Dutch Haus in Columbiana; The Mocha House in Boardman, Youngstown and Warren; East Palestine Eagles 1506 Kitchen; House of Benny’s in Poland; Marino’s Italian Cafe in Austintown; MoJo’s Pub in Austintown; Tavern 26 in Campbell; Rhonda’s Emerald Diner in Hubbard; Trax in Austintown; and The Royal Star Diner in Sebring.

Jim York, 79, of Youngstown’s West Side, said the program is a blessing.

“Especially today, when everything is sky high and most of us folks are on fixed incomes, it’s tough,” he said. “Our hardest part is medication, that’s so expensive now. So, a free meal here and there helps a lot and most people at the restaurants are respectful of that.”

York said he has been part of the program for two years and always uses all five of his meals each month.

“The program helps a lot, especially for people like me,” he said.

He usually goes to Mocha House downtown, and Landmark on Meridian Road, around the corner from his house, along with Trax, Marino’s and Mojo’s. He said he likes Marino’s best.

“I don’t know why more restaurants don’t participate in it. They get paid,” he said.

The restaurants are reimbursed for the value of the meals they provide.

As popular and stable as the program is, though, Valentini said her agency is not oblivious to the budget cuts coming down the pike, and they could affect Get Out and Dine, as well as Direction Home’s other programming.

Eastern Ohio already receives less money than the agencies in places like Cleveland or Columbus, and more cuts may be looming.

Valentini said they expect cuts at the state level in 2026, but are not clear on exactly how much they might lose.

She said they are in contact with the ODA and waiting to learn what the final determination is for the region’s population-based allocation. Any state and federal cuts would mean fewer cards for the dine-out program and fewer resources for seniors across the board.

“We fund everything from home modification to supportive care,” Valentini said.

If cuts do come down, she said they hope to work with the ODA to soften the blow.

“Our hope is that we won’t feel the effects as hard as we would have, if the state can help us by splitting it over the course of a few years,” she said.

However the program continues, York and Murar agree on one thing other than its value to them:

“Many folks my age, they feel that if they get a free meal they don’t have to tip, and I disagree with that,” York said. “Always leave a nice healthy tip when you’re getting a free meal.”