WesleyLife, a Johnston-based senior services provider, received a $1.3 million award that will help support the construction of a new Meals on Wheels campus, ultimately reducing food insecurity among older Iowans and veterans.

Sophia S. Ahmad, vice president of philanthropy for WesleyLife, announced the award this month, which was from the Administration for Community Living, also known as the ACL. The ACL is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The award will help to support the construction of a new Meals on Wheels campus designed to triple meal capacity for the thousands of nutritionally vulnerable older adults and military veterans who are served by the WesleyLife nutrition program.

“The federal award was set into motion in 2022, when Rep. Cindy Axne, then representing Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, included the request as one of 15 community projects from the district that was recommended to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee,” AARP State Director Brad Anderson, a tri-chair for the So Much More Than Meals campaign, said in a statement. “The funding was included in the 2022 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, then allocated to the ACL for distribution in 2023. We are humbled and gratified to have received it on behalf of all the older Iowans who we hope to reach through our Meals on Wheels expansion.”

Ahmad also expressed gratitude for the award and for the volunteer campaign leaders who advocated that WesleyLife receive it. “When our new campus opens later this year, these dollars will have an immediate impact on food-insecure Iowans,” Ahmad said in a statement.

The So Much More than Meals campaign — led by campaign tri-chairs Angela Connolly, Polk County Supervisor; community leader and retired Des Moines City Council member Christine Hensley; and Anderson — has raised more than $11 million to help fund the new Meals on Wheels campus, which will open late this year.

Related: WesleyLife Meals on Wheels launches $8.25M fundraising campaign