KITCHEN PLANS
Mom's Meals — which caused some Oklahoma seniors to turn their noses up last year — is building a facility in OKC
Mom's Meals, which produces refrigerated home-delivered meals in the health care market — and which caused some southern Oklahoma seniors to turn their nose up last year — is building a 200,000-squarefoot kitchen/ food prep facility in Oklahoma City.
The company's third regional fulfillment center will be at 6849 S Rockwell Ave. in Rockwell Industrial Park just west of Will Rogers World Airport. It will cost an estimated $ 17,750,600, city records show.
Mom's other industrial kitchen-packaging-logistics centers are in Grinnell, Iowa, and North Jackson, Ohio, in retrofitted space. The one here is the company's first "greenfield" project, meaning built from the ground up on vacant land, said Michael Anderson, president of Mom's Meals, which is based in Ankeny, Iowa. The first phase of construction will take until late 2021, he said. Tippman Construction in Fort Wayne, Indiana, an industrial cold storage specialist, is the general contractor.
The Rockwell Avenue plant will initially employ about 125 people and eventually up to 550, he said. Anderson declined to discuss
details of state incentives. The Oklahoma Commerce Department did not have any information to release Thursday afternoon.
“We continue to hit new milestones for growth,” Anderson said. “As more people hope to remain in their homes as they age, recuperate at home after a hospital stay, or as people of all ages manage a chronic condition like diabetes, we are excited to deliver nutritious meals when they need it most. We're grateful to the state of Oklahoma for their partnership, and look forward to supporting the economic development of Oklahoma City.”
Mom's Meals provides prepared, refrigerated meals delivered directly to people's homes through Medicaid, Medicare and programs to support long-term, chronic, and postdischarge care. The meals "include food tailored to meet the needs of individuals of all ages with chronic conditions, including diabetes, kidney disease, cancer and heart disease, with the goal of reducing hospital readmissions and keeping members healthier and independent at home," the company said.
Many state senior citizens were displeased with the service when the Southern Oklahoma Development Association switched last
summer to Mom's Meals and its boxed, refrigerated food, packed for two weeks at a time, from the nonprofit Southern Oklahoma Nutrition Program, which provided daily hot meals on weekdays. Anderson acknowledged the turbulent transition, but said a client survey showed a 95% satisfaction rate nationally.
The coronavirus has made Mom's Meals products and delivery service more important, said Catherine Macpherson, the company's vice president for product strategy and development and chief nutrition officer.
"It's a well- known fact that food insecurity and poor nutrition are associated with several chronic illnesses that put people at higher risk for more severe complications of COVID- 19," she wrote in a blog post Thursday at www.momsmeals.com/ blog. "Today's food access crisis actually threatens to deepen the already large and troubling disparities in health outcomes for our most vulnerable populations — including older adults, people of color, low-income individuals, and those with chronic conditions.
"Given this year's spike in food insecurity and the ongoing pandemic, our team at Mom's Meals decided to replicate a survey we initially
conducted in 2017 — where we asked Medicare and Medicaid recipients who have at least one chronic condition to comparatively rank healthcare activities and benefits. Our objective was to gauge enrollees' attitudes today: How is COVID- 19 affecting people's perceptions of their healthcare options and benefits right now?"
Of the 1,378 Medicare enrollees surveyed, 77% said they enjoyed eating healthy meals "significantly more than other health-related activities, such as taking medications, visiting the doctor, and other activities a person typically undertakes to self- manage a chronic condition," Macpherson said. "And why shouldn't they? People love food! And we all need to eat every day.
"Our 2020 survey also showed the majority of Medicaid respondents ( 53%) felt home- delivered meals are more important or much more important during/since COVID- 19 than they were prior to the pandemic ( versus 36% of Medicare respondents). This result isn't surprising considering Medicaid serves low-income, vulnerable populations of all ages whose health is often most negatively impacted by ( social determinants of health)."
The study conclusions, Anderson said, "underscore the current struggles and unmet nutritional needs of too many across our nation — a problem that has been amplified by the current pandemic.”
Real estate editor Richard Mize edits The Oklahoman's Real Estate section, and covers housing, construction, commercial real estate, and related topics for the newspaper and Oklahoman.com. Contact him at rmize@ oklahoman.com. Please support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a subscription at http://oklahoman. com/subscribe today.