Madison County Senior Center to close

One of many volunteers at Madison County Senior Center cleaning up after a day of dining. Matt Morey, Democrat News

Updated on 10/23/2025 at 4:00 p.m.

After nearly 50 years of service, Madison County Senior Center will say goodbye on Friday, on Oct. 31 under months of budget cuts from state and local sources.

The nutrition center functions like a restaurant except with a special meal plan and activities like games and music, offering a social place for young and old alike. It also delivers meals for over 1,000 Medicaid and Title III recipients. They posted a Facebook notice on Wednesday:

“It is with deep regret and sadness that the Madison County Senior Center Board announced the immediate [closure] of all operations, including the Meal Service program, due to a persistent and critical lack of funding.”

Aging Matters, which oversees southeast Missouri nutrition centers, suffered shortfalls from a faulty census-based funding system, and from Medicaid reimbursements.

Aging Matters Nutrition Project Director Rhonda Bramlett said Aging Matters is awarded funds not based on service, but on census information.

Bramlett said urban nutrition centers only serve about half as many of the over 1.3 million meals that southeast Missouri Aging Matters does in their 18 counties. But southeast Missouri receives less than 10% of the funding from the federal Older Americans Act (OAA), which funds nutrition centers. Due to the funding formula, rural areas lost out, Fiscal Officer Beth Bollinger said.

“Our cities of course have the population, so they get more of the money,” Bramlett said, “but they don’t serve nearly the meals that our counties in southeast Missouri serve.” 

The second biggest cut for Aging Matters came from meal reimbursement rates for Medicaid. Madison County Senior Center is reimbursed $6 for $8 meals, not enough for full coverage. They were expecting a higher rate increase this fiscal year than what they got.

“Our nutrition centers were very excited when they heard the Missouri legislature had increased the Medicaid meal reimbursement rate,” Bollinger said. But Bramlett said the rate increases were lower than Aging Matters had expected before the fiscal year.

At the beginning of October, the senior center posted a list of their expenses and their income sources, showing they received only $15,000, mostly from deliveries, and needed to pay $19,000 each month. Perhaps without issues in funding distribution and Medicaid reimbursements they could have recouped the $4,000.

Further south, Malden Nutrition Center was slated to close this month too. But they may have had a success story just in a matter of days. “In the last three weeks, they’ve gotten such contributions from the community and individuals, that they’re gonna stay open,” Bramlett said.

Malden Nutrition Center, which covers several counties and towns, raised $40,000 after local and regional news coverage on it, among other factors, Malden Nutrition Center Assistant Director Pam White said.

“I’ve had numerous people reaching out to me and asking if they could help,” White said. “This is a needed thing in the communities, because if they don’t have anybody, this is the only meal they’ll receive throughout the day.”

Some of the donations came from a community outpouring, or from actively seeking them, White said. A group of women went into the community and asked individuals and businesses for donations, the largest at $10,000 — from a man whose mom opened the nutrition center over 40 years ago.

Still, White agreed that donations can only go far. “We’re hoping to get ourselves through June, which is our fiscal year,” White said. “But then in July we’ll start a new budget. And we don’t know right now what that budget’s going to be or how that funding is going to look.”

The administrator of the Malden Nutrition Center, Denton Kooyman — who is also the Mayor of Malden — reached out to MO Sen. Jason Bean, an acquaintance of his. White said Bean replied that he would consider different funding plans outside of the broken census-based system for rural senior centers.

Sherrick said the senior center board made the decision Oct. 9 at their meeting, and that Aging Matters was unable to help them, as they can only supply little over half of a center’s budget.

The Madison County Senior Center serves $8 meals with several food bases covered on the tray, organized by a nutritionist in Cape Girardeau, and opens Wednesdays through Fridays. They also deliver to over 1,000 people, about 800 of whom pay with Medicaid. They serve over 31,000 meals a year, according to their Facebook.

Sherrick received a letter from Aging Matters for Medicaid recipients, which gives them the option to receive meals from the Distance Dining Program out of Cape Girardeau, that she will send out to each recipient.

The 260 people on delivery who do not receive Medicaid, or “Title III” recipients, will get another letter. “We would like your permission to place your name on the waiting list for home-delivered meals[…]If more funding becomes available to establish a meal delivery program in your area, you will be contacted if you are on the waiting list.”

“It’s really sad because our work is so important,” Sherrick said. “It’s important to keep people out of the nursing home.” She said that just having someone there one or two days a week was all someone needed to help someone age at home, rather than in a facility.

The last day for the Madison County Senior Center will be next Friday.