The popular program — which mainly uses volunteer drivers to provide hot meals to older Americans across the country — doesn't directly receive federal funding. “While Meals on Wheels America and local Meals on Wheels programs are seeing an uptick in giving, it does not replace federal funding,” Bertolette told Reuters in an email. Meals on Wheels said on its website that it is difficult to imagine a scenario under which the next federal budget would not have an impact on its services. “The president knows who his voters are,” Mulvaney said, arguing that the budget demonstrates “compassion.” 
 
 Noting that Trump supporters are sensitive to how their tax dollars are spent, he added, “Could I, as a budget director, look at the coal miner in West Virginia and say, ‘I want you, please, to give some of your money to the federal government so that I can give it to the National Endowment for the Arts?’ And I just think we finally got to the point in the administration where we couldn’t do that.” 
 
 This article has been updated. The majority of Meals on Wheels programs get most of their federal funding through the Administration for Community Living, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services that serves the elderly and disabled. President Donald Trump’s first budget proposal includes a 17.9 percent cut for fiscal 2018 in funds for the Department of Health and Human Services, which provides most of the government support for Meals on Wheels, the organization said. Rather, the groups run on a mix of local, state and federal money, as well as private donations and the work contributions of volunteers, which vary depending on the funding structure of each affiliate. [For the Record: White House budget director did not say Meals on Wheels did not show results] 
 
 Democrats sought Sunday to shame the Trump administration for a budget that takes away resources for programs like Meals on Wheels. Mick Mulvaney, the Office of Management and Budget director, said that the funding source the administration seeks to eliminate — the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s community development block grants — accounts for just 3 percent of Meals on Wheels’ overall funding.
– Fears that the Meals on Wheels program would be gutted under President Trump's first budget has translated into a significant boost in donations to the group. The national umbrella organization said it received $50,000 in online donations Thursday after Trump released his prelminary budget, reports Reuters. The typical daily total? More like $1,000. As USA Today and the Washington Post explain, however, it's a little early to suggest that the program will be decimated by the White House. For one thing, Meals on Wheels is not a federal program and does not receive money directly from the federal government. Instead, it ends up with a mixture of federal, state, and city funds. While Trump has proposed an overall 17.9% cut for the Department of Health and Human Services, the specific impact on the group is unclear. “Some of the stories are just either grossly wrong or nearly grossly wrong, all the stories about how we cut Meals on Wheels,” White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney said on NBC’s Meet the Press. Still, Trump did propose elminating HUD's community development block grants, from which Meals on Wheels gets about 3% of its funding. And the program would almost certainly feel the pinch if the HHS cuts hold up, given that it gets most of its federal money through one of its agencies, the Administration for Community Living. It's just too early to tell how bad it would be. In the meantime, a spokeswoman for the group says that while the extra donations are welcome, they probably wouldn't cover the shortfall. "While Meals on Wheels America and local Meals on Wheels programs are seeing an uptick in giving, it does not replace federal funding."