It's a great question. It was around the new horizons for seniors program and the $9 million that the federal government is mobilizing in support of vulnerable seniors.
First of all, thank you for that contribution to Canadians. It's incredibly important today.
We all know that our seniors are the most at risk and vulnerable as a result of COVID-19. We know that means isolating at home and taking significant precautions. We also know that our most vulnerable seniors often are those who were using things such as community support programs and day programs for physical and social activities. That's where they were accessing nutritious food supports. Those programs have had to close because of social isolation, so the very infrastructure that was supporting our seniors isn't there. That means we have to actually bring those supports to them and our most vulnerable. That's really important. Not the least of that are things such as food.
I would name one more issue. If you think about meals on wheels programs, those are also often supported by volunteers who are seniors and at risk. Not only are some of the programs having to close because of social isolation, but some of the volunteers who have been supporting them have had to isolate. Therefore, it's a bit of a double whammy.
To answer your question about the methodology for distribution, we've been asked to make sure that those dollars are supporting all parts of Canada. The first thing we did was make sure there is a minimal viable amount of money that can go to communities across Canada. We also used a population distribution model. Where the seniors are and the distribution of seniors was used to then inform each region of the country in terms of their allotment of those dollars. Those dollars are being deployed through local United Way Centraide organizations, our 79 member organizations that serve all regions and all communities in Canada. They are accountable organizations with expertise on the ground, with community relationships and strong senior support relationships, that are going to be delivering that funding to community support and senior-serving organizations—