LANSING, MI — Sen. Jim Runestad applauded the planned Sept. 23 celebration to mark the opening of a new headquarters for Livingston County Senior Nutrition and Western Oakland County Meals on Wheels.
Runestad secured grant funding in the 2022 state budget to allow for the partnering organizations to purchase a shared building space to support their mission to serve local seniors in need. Funded through the Area Agency on Aging 1B, the Meals on Wheels programs had been providing 1,500 meals a day working out of a high school cafeteria — with staff and hundreds of volunteers showing up as early as 3:30 a.m. — and renting storage space at multiple locations.
“I am proud to have helped secure vital funding to support the ability of Meals on Wheels to continue to service vulnerable seniors throughout our community,” said Runestad, R-White Lake. “The future of this important mission is no longer in jeopardy, having grown too big to continue operating out of rented and shared spaces. Now, with its own kitchen space to prepare food and dedicated space for storage for food products and packaging materials, along with program administrative offices, the future is very bright for the dedicated volunteers and seniors who count on Meals on Wheels.”
With permanent headquarters now established in Brighton, the Livingston County Senior Nutrition and Western Oakland County Meals on Wheels leaders will no longer have to move operations every few years as the program grows and can now coordinate the efforts of their 600 volunteers from a central location.
The grand opening event will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23, including a 2:30 p.m. ribbon cutting, at 11600 Grand River Ave. in Brighton.