Durham, NC (October 30, 2023): Meals on Wheels Durham (MOWD) is proud to announce a significant milestone in our journey towards enhancing the quality and customization of our meal offerings. After decades of partnering with an external caterer, we are bringing meal preparation in-house by leasing a commissary kitchen on Foster Street in Downtown Durham and collaborating with TRIO Community Meals to oversee operations. We are set to begin delivering meals prepared in our commissary kitchen on Monday, November 6, 2023.
“Our newly formed partnership with TRIO provides an opportunity and flexibility to meet the evolving needs of more than 500 older adults we see weekly,” says Meals on Wheels Durham Executive Director, Jason Peace. “It also allows us to begin exploring creative solutions to reducing the current waitlist of over 300 individuals. We’ve been providing nutritious meals to older adults in Durham for 48 years and we believe this partnership is one of many steps that will position us to continue to serve the community for years to come.”
TRIO Community Meals was founded in 2019 by Elior North America, which brought together three regional leaders in senior nutrition and community meal provision — Valley, Bateman Community Living, and Lindley — to provide menu development, meal production, and logistics for nonprofits who provide home-delivered meals or congregate meal sites. MOWD will contract with TRIO to staff and manage our new kitchen, conceptualize and prepare our meals, and ensure that meals are nutritious, delicious, and meet our exacting quality standards.
By moving meal production in-house, MOWD is opening the door to greater alignment with our clients’ individual nutrition requirements, flexibility to explore culturally competent offerings, and deeper partnership with the healthcare community. At the same time, we are charting a course to add medically tailored meals to our program offerings, which are prepared under the direction of a registered dietician nutritionist for clients with chronic, nutrition-sensitive diseases. We also intend to explore ways to meet food preparation needs of other nonprofits working in our space and to offer job training for community members who are interested in a food industry career.
Meals on Wheels Durham is an affiliate, nonprofit organization of the Meals on Wheels America network that serves homebound clients in Durham, North Carolina. The organization’s mission is to enhance the quality of life for seniors, persons with disabilities, and other eligible community members by delivering meals, providing social interactions, conducting safety checks, and offering other complimentary services such as pet food and veterinary care, holiday gifts, and more. Learn more at www.mowdurham.org.