GREENFIELD — Amid anticipated cuts to federal Older Americans Act (Title III) funding, the nonprofit LifePath is stopping its Healthy Living Program, which assists those facing long-term health challenges.

The program helps those dealing with issues related to mobility and balance, managing chronic health conditions, coping with chronic pain and navigating diabetes.

According to LifePath Executive Director Gary Yuhas, the program was funded annually by approximately $91,000 in Title III funds, which he expects to be cut, as the federal government did not vote to re-authorize the Older Americans Act in December.

Yuhas said LifePath must halt the Healthy Living Program to preserve funding for Meals on Wheels, which delivers meals to elderly residents and people with disabilities.

“The chaos and dysfunction at the federal level makes it much harder for us to do our jobs, because we don’t know what funding sources we’re going to have in the next fiscal year,” Yuhas said. “LifePath is not alone in that. This area is rich in human services and social service organizations, and other folks are having these same challenges that we are.”

In addition to the Healthy Living Program, the expected cuts to Title III funding may also impact other LifePath programs, according to Yuhas. This may include the Ombudsman Program, which assists nursing home and assisted living facility residents with volunteer support, and the SHINE (Serving the Health Insurance Needs of Everyone) program, which helps people navigate the complexities of health insurance.

He added that a number of disability service programs, including those that support people with cerebral palsy and other conditions, may also face cuts in next fiscal year’s federal budget.

Yuhas said federal funds make up roughly $800,000, or 3%, of LifePath’s overall budget. State funding is the largest contributor, providing about 77% of the nonprofit’s annual budget, or roughly $18.7 million. Although he hopes state funds will help LifePath fill some federal funding gaps, Yuhas noted the state can only do so much.

“It’s not possible for the state to fill in all the gaps that will be left by the federal government. I think the state will probably try — they’ll want to do something, but it’s just not feasible for them to be able to come up with that amount of money,” Yuhas said. “It makes budgeting very difficult for us, because we are crafting our budget for the next fiscal year, but we don’t know what the feds are going to be doing. It makes it really hard for us to plan for programming, because we’re not sure what resources we’ll have available.”

This news comes as LifePath is gearing up for a May 10 banquet to celebrate its 50-year anniversary. Yuhas said that despite challenges brought about by the federal government, the nonprofit has “weathered the storm” for half a century, and will continue to provide service to Franklin County.

“We will continue providing all the state-funded programming as we do today, unless the state makes some sort of changes to the programming or to our funding,” Yuhas said. “People assume that the federal government pays for most of our work, but in fact, it doesn’t. It’s the state that is our biggest funding source, and I think the 50th anniversary banquet does show that we’ve been here for 50 years, we’ve weathered other storms. We will weather this one, and we will come out the other side. Things may look different, but we’ll still be here.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.