The nonprofit senior services provider WesleyLife Inc. cut the ribbon Friday on what the organization said was a more than $13 million project to retrofit a building in the Drake neighborhood to triple the meal-making capacity of its Meals on Wheels program.

Inside the building at 3206 University Ave., donated by Drake University, there is a commercial kitchen 65% larger than the kitchen at the previous Meals on Wheels facility, according to a news release. According to WesleyLife, the bigger kitchen will enable volunteers to prepare and deliver 3,000 nutritious, hot meals a day for delivery to older Iowans and Iowa veterans to help combat food insecurity in Greater Des Moines. That’s up from 1,000 meals per day at its current building at 944 18th St.

The new Meals on Wheels campus also features a 3,000-square-foot indoor hydroponic garden to grow leafy greens and vegetables that WesleyLife says will increase the meals’ nutritional quality, and a multigenerational programming hall.

WesleyLife Director of Communications Lisa Ryan said the nonprofit received $11.1 million for the project, including a $1.05 million gift from lead donor Suzie Glazer Burt.

The project also secured $3 million from the state’s Nonprofit Innovation Assistance Grant Program, according to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

Below are comments from some of the speakers at the event:

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds: The facility’s intergenerational community space “will facilitate enhanced programming, including experiences designed to help people overcome social isolation ensuring not only bodies but also minds and souls will be fed.”

Des Moines Mayor-elect Connie Boesen: “This campus will serve as much more than just a community kitchen providing meals. This campus will play a role in changing the social fabric of not only Des Moines, but the entire metro area by helping serve our older population and our veteran community.”

WesleyLife President and CEO Rob Kretzinger: “We have the opportunity to have a hydroponic farm – who could believe that at WesleyLife, we’d have an urban farmer? We also wanted to have a place where generations could come together and learn from one another. There is a renaissance going on in this (Drake) neighborhood. It’s an intellectually provocative place to come here, and we want to be a part of that.”

A video about the new campus is available here.