Meals on Wheels San Francisco broke ground on a 35,794-square-foot facility in the Bayview District on Thursday that will allow the organization to more than double its meal output once completed.

The new location at 2230 Jerrold Ave., just a few blocks from Meals on Wheel’s San Francisco headquarters, should increase meal output from 8,000 to 20,000 daily, according to the nonprofit, which provides food and services to seniors to allow them to live in their homes.

The new site will feature a state-of-the-art cook-chill area, freezers, assembly production areas, receiving docks and a test kitchen.

Meals on Wheels San Francisco CEO and executive director Ashley McCumber said the groundbreaking was a celebration of the milestone of this facility, but also of the hard work put in to reach this point.

“We have embraced our responsibility to amplify the voice of seniors and to make San Francisco all it can be for them,” he said.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said at the event that Meals on Wheels served her own grandmother for years. She said that not only the meals, but the interaction with those delivering the meals, can be key for seniors who may otherwise be living in isolation.

“Food really brings people together,” Breed said.

The new Meals on Wheels facility is scheduled to open by the end of 2020. Eighty percent of the funds have been raised, but the organization still has 20 percent to go.

Meals on Wheels has been serving meals and social services to seniors in the city since 1970.

-Kasey Carlson, Bay City News