The nonprofit Mobile Meals of Southern Arizona, an agency that delivers hot meals to homebound elderly and adults with disabilities, bought property on Tucsonβs south side that once housed the now closed El Indio Mexican Food Restaurant.
The purchase price was $910,000.
The building at 3355 S. Sixth Ave., south of Interstate 10, will undergo $300,000 in renovations and accommodate the organizationβs administrative offices and new kitchen, said Robert Jensen, chief executive officer of the agency.
Officials will run a capital campaign to raise funds for the renovations at the 4,500-square-foot building, and a grand opening is expected in May 2022.
This is the first time Mobile Meals has owned its own building and will operate its own kitchen preparing meals for clients in Tucson, Sahuarita, Green Valley and communities along the Interstate 19 corridor on down to Nogales, Arizona.
The agency now contracts with about 10 hospitals or health care facilitiesβ kitchens for special diets and meal preparations. It will continue contracting with Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging and the Chabad of Tucson congregation to cook kosher meals. It also will contract with Santa Cruz Valley Regional Hospital and La Posada Assisted Living community in Green Valley to make it more practical for Mobile Meals volunteers to deliver on its most southern routes, said Jensen. He said there will be no disruption in meal services to clients during the transition.
βWe will be able to fulfill our mission and feed more people,β said Jensen. βWe are very excited and we look forward to partnering with a number of new sponsors to be able to make this kitchen functional and make this project come alive,β he said.
Jensen said demand for the agencyβs services grew significantly during the COVID-19 response, and the agencyβs desire to offer menu choice required a shift to meet community need and anticipated future demand in Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties. Most of the clients served are low-income older adults who are ill.
βMobile Meals has always been in the business of delivering freshly prepared special diet and regular meals,β said Jensen. βThe ability to source and prepare our own food will go a long way to meeting community need and gives clients the opportunity to have menu options, culturally unique meals, and expanded services,β he said.
Once the kitchen is fully operational, it will have the capacity to prepare up to 1,600 meals daily, and more than 400,000 meals each year, said Leslie Perls, president of the board of directors for the nonprofit.
Freshly prepared meals will continue to be delivered Monday through Friday, and clients will be able to expand their orders for holidays and weekends, said Jensen.
There is a possibility to start a community garden on the property, and the vegetables and herbs could be used in meal preparations, and by families in the surrounding neighborhoods. Another possibility is working with community culinary programs, said Perls.
The agencyβs annual budget is $1.1 million, and it serves 800 clients a year, almost twice as many compared to 2019. It serves more than 100,000 meals a year. The agency employs six and operates with 300 volunteers. Next year, six to 10 kitchen employees will be hired, Jensen said.
The feeding program began in 1970 through the support of the Pima County Medical Society Auxiliary and years later was taken over by Mobile Meals of Southern Arizona. βI am so excited,β said Perls. βIt is quite amazing that after nearing 52 years this organization is ready to pivot,β she said, adding that the transformation is the vision of the board and Jensenβs, who is the former CEO of Eegeeβs.
βWe are an organization of neighbors feeding neighbors. We want to do more and by expanding and buying this kitchen we will be able to focus on more people and provide fresh special diet meals to people who cannot cook or shop for themselves,β Perls said.
