Meals on Wheels of Southwest OH & Northern KY plans to begin work this fall on renovating a former car dealership into its new headquarters and operations center. The organization has been working out of a building it says is way too small for demand.
CEO Mike Dunn says the organization produces more than a million meals annually in its current building, which is designed to produce 300,000 meals. The new space will be a 51,5000-square foot facility across 7.5 acres.
"It will allow us to take our meal production from 1.2 million meals to 3 million meals," Dunn says.
Meals on Wheels has purchased the former John Nolan Ford dealership on Highland Ave. in Columbia Township. It plans to begin work on the $30 million project in the fall and open the facility in 2026. The organization currently is spread across buildings in Downtown, Butler County, Boone County, and its headquarters in South Fairmount.
"It will also allow us to create social enterprise opportunities that we're not able to do here — things like a private pay option for folks that don't qualify for our services, as well as a wholesale option for other nonprofits that we'll be able to provide meals to them as well," Dunn adds.
That's important, he says, because he sees the nonprofit as too reliant on government funding. New revenue streams will help ease that burden.
"We are funded 87% by the government — 26% of that funding is federally funded," Dunn tells WVXU. "It's incumbent upon us — [even] before what's going on in today's current climate — to diversify our revenues, [and] not be so reliant. Whether that's private fundraising or social enterprise, we want to generate additional resources so we can get ahead of the great need that we know is coming."
Cuts to federal funding are likely. The Trump administration's restructuring of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services includes dismantling the government agency that oversees programs like Meals on Wheels.
Meals on Wheels serves five counties in southwest Ohio and eight counties in Northern Kentucky. It produces more than 1.2 million meals, but also offers other services to area seniors.
Nearly 1 in 4 Americans is 60 years or older — that's roughly 79 million people. Over the next decade, Dunn says for the first time in U.S. history there will be more seniors than young people 18 and under. The number of seniors is projected to be 91 million by 2030, and 112 million by 2060, he adds.
The organization has raised $22 million of the $30 million price tag for its new facility.
Read more:
