They volunteered to cook food and morphed into an organization that today is one of the largest meals on Wheels Organization in the country and definitely in my opinion is wumone of the best ig services in San Francisco and in the country. [ applause ]. Were also secelebrating sin that founding count leless vo volunteers, Board Members, Staff Members who have carried that submissi Mission Forward and creatueach made it stronger and bigger and more responsive. We were secelebrating partnership with adult aging and county services in the city of San Francisco to make sure that we can do what we need to do and were currently grateful to our current mayor and board of supervisors to seasocontinuing mission and seascontinuing to d that. Were secelebrating thousand s doe scenarinors and foundations allow us to realize 50 of our budget each other year. We secelebrate the restaurant sd vit answers tha s s vintners. I want to call out chef in nanc oak for your leadership and that effort. Were secelebrating also that w have embraced our responsibility to affirmfy the emphasis voice of seniors and make San Francisco all it can be for t m them. All of us together have embraced some very important and simple values of san fran siciscan s. No considsenior or no person sh ever go hungry because they are home bound or without the resources and support that they need. Number two, no senior should be in vvisible or alone. Number three, that all senior s have the right to live in their community and neighborhoods that they helped build, they raised their familyies in and have the right to selfdetermination and ha to live with dig nity. Lastly, that cityies and communityies should be judged b how it treats the elderly and we need to work every single day to make San Francisco the number one agefriendly city in amer a america. [ applause ]. So today we secelebrate a mar milestone, but this day has been a long, long, long time in coupcom coming and we secelebrate the hd work thats kind of led us here. The path has been extensive to say the least, but one mietric that led us here is simple. In 2007 as an organization we decided that no senior should have to wait longer than 30 yda s to receive our service and we partnered with the department of aging and Adult Service s to mae sure that anyone who is in emergency is served within two to five days. That simple commitment has driven us to the growth that weve seen thats brought us to this need today to build this new kitchen. In 2007, just to give you an idea, we served 523,000 meals in the city and delivered them, and this year 2 2. 1. Think about that growth. We were touching the lives of about 2,000 individuals u unduplicated in the city. Now were touching over 5,000 a year. That growth has been predominantly in seniors, but weve also in that tenyear period worked with the department of aging and Adult Services to serve those people who are under 60 represents about 50 of our population and also were partnering with the food bank to deliver groceryies to about 500 people a week in the department of aging and also working with this mayor and administration to make sure that people in inactinavigation cens have meals. Were very grateful to be a part of that effort as well. It mabelibecame quite clear abo years ago that we needed a plan to deal with this. We first conducted a fullscale operation ental review. Is there any way that we dont need to build a new kitchen . Is there anything else we need to do . That plan basically was Pretty Simple and straightforward and said, hey, you need to get out of this kitchen pm. So that began the process that were committed to the fact that we need to build something new, and we designed the kitchen with the help of kitchen concepts ionic that ionic inc. That will carry us forward for 30 years. Thats the second step. Then we got to the hard work. Where the heck can we afford to buy a piece of labbed land in San Francisco and where can we find that. We originally wanted to keep our operations in one place, but un fortunately that wasnt in the cards. We have an amazing plan b. We will build our kitchen and Distribution Center and keep our site three minutes away on the other side of 3rd street in the bay view as our Office Production facility. So were going to have a tw twocampus operation. So we purchased this site from l luxor cap. Does anyone remember this as that site . Were about to make it differe t different. At the end of the day the price tag is going to be about 41 million and well tell you a little bit more about how were doing in that goal in raising, but you can rest assured that weve done well enough that were here today and we still have some work to do and so forth and well secelebrate tho ha who have carried us so far. Heres what were building and the great features were building. On this site will be a 34,700 square foot facility, slug including a state ooftheart cook chill area, freezer, storage, assembly production, distribution yard and receiving docks. This is the big news in this construction. Were going to move our daily constructi production from 8,000 meals a day to 20,000 meals a day. [ applause ]. It will be one of the only facilities in the region and we think in San Francisco that use s this cook chill equipment to produce bulk food and used in meals. The other thing im very excited about is where we are. Were in the middle of the San Francisco wholesale product district. Were food. Were great partners with th s e michael gentlemjanice, and loo forward to partnering with these businesses in this neighborhood and working to continue the efforts that are here in the neighborhood. It also will have a test kitchen that will help us improve the quality and choice for our clients and tailor meal s as we look to improving our service s for clients. Maximumly ally were doing solar on the building so we can save the planet. Isnt that a great facility . [ applause ]. So were excited to have with us this morning mayor london breed. Before inviting her to speak, i just wanted to take a moment to recognize a few other elected officials who are going to be here shortly or are here alre y already. Hope fulfully soon, supervisor gordon mar from district 4 and supervisor waltshamann walton f this district will be with you and hope fulfully you get a cha to chat with them. We want to welcome the form er district 10 supervisor who is now chair of the board of equ equalization, malia, and representing state isnt that right scott weiener is rose gu i guiliano and representing is n kenneth chan. Thank you for your service. And lastly, i think that the new captain of the Bay View District is here. I want to just give a shout out and a welcome to captain Troy Dangerfield who has taken on as chief of the bay view station. Hope fulfully well get chance meet with him. I was one of the lucky people who last year on july 11th was at a historic event where this city welcomed its first africanamerican mayor in the citys history, frisk nati sfri San Francisco native london breed. It was an absolutely Beautiful Day and i have only one regret. I should have worn a big hat because it was sunny and it was a long time out there with a lot of fun. Its hard to believe it was only 12 months ago that that occurred because this mayor has hit the ground running. It feels like years of work has been done. Shes out there with laser focus trying to tackle the issues fa e facing our city, tackling the home leless crisis, adding more beds, expanding Mental Health and substance deuabuse programs creating more housing for all san fran sciscan s and keeping city streets safe and clean. It is my sincere pleasure to introduce and welcome to the stage lamayor london breed. [ applause ]. Mayor breed thank you so much, it is great to be here and i want to recognize alex ran doff, thank you so much for joining us today. Ive got to start by staying ths is probably one of the most organized and neat groundbreak s ings ive ever been to. Just the gravel on the ground, the need and structured system here. I mean, this is absolutely i indecreed able because ive been to a lot of groundbreakings and you know, malia, how many gro d groundbreakings weve been to. This is probably the nicest one weve ever been to. Thank you all for creating this wonderful environment for what i think is one of the mobest programs we have in San Francisco. I want to start by thanking a ashly and all the people who work for meals on wheels because you do the hard work. I know from experience how amazing the employees at meals on wheels are because they served my grandmother for so many years. They did it with kindness. They always asked how she was doing today. They can tell maybe when she wasnt having a great day. So they would spend time and put forwa forth effort and talk about the food they were bringing over. It really for seniors who are living in isolation, how amazing to have at least if no one else is coming to see you, that person whos delivering those meals sometimes is the only contact that so many of our Senior Community has when that feel meal is dropped off. This program and what it has done since 1970 has been absolutely amazing. This analyticfacility, to go fr meals a day to over 20,000 meals a day will make sure that we get rid of that wait list once and for all so that no one is left off the list moving forward in the future. You all, the contribute entor s people on the board, the folks who have supported this program over the years, the investmens s that you have made have had a pro foufound impact on so many indecreed able lives and you know this because thats why you support this program. I had the opportunity because i visited over the years since ive been an elected official various clients for the progra s and have had great kfingss, including the one i just had with mrs. Lee earlier this year. She was just so grateful and so excited and so happy and just talked about her experience and how she probably wouldnt honestly she said i probably wouldnt be as big as i am if meals on wheels didnt deliver these programs. She was not big. She was a tooiny laidy, but shes so very happy and food really brings people together. We help and support our Senior Communities in this way. And another way were going to be supporting our Senior Community is the housing bond, a 600 million housing bond without raising property tax es with the largest amount ever dedicated to Senior Housing and this is the largest housing bond weve ever done in the history of this city. So im really proud of the investments, the deliberate investments that we are making to support our senior populat n population, our dis ababled population, and also again thank you to meals on wheels for supporting our inactinavigationr s because we know that home l s homelessness is one of the the number one issue that we face in San Francisco. We have a lot of people is it truing ling sw Mental Health and Substance Abuse dis ororder. We are changing how we provide support and services and it involves making sure we have i indecreed able partners and whee meals on wheels has been pushing the envelope and doing the great work for years and this facility that will be absolutely amazing is just one step forward in it happen ing continuing the great work theyve done for decades. Im so excited to be here and cant wait to cut the ribbon when we open. Thank you all so much. [ applause ]. Thank you so much, mayor breed. You know, nothing this monument al happens without a lot of effort, gathering the skills and leadership necessary to make Something Like this happen. So we want to acknowledge how weve gotten to this day and acknowledge the team thats going to help us finish this up. First and foremost, i want to thank my board of directors and the many boards of directors who have been engaged in this conversation. I was talking to someone about this earlier. You know, boards by design are the kooerps of the mission and frankly very hesitant to take on risk. This group of people did their job. They made sure that we were taking on something that we could accomplish and the fact that were sitting here today is a testament frankly that they xem pexemplify the type of leadp and stewardship we want on all our boards across the city. Lets give all these Board Members a big hand. [ applause ]. I mentioned earlier we went through the slog of trying to find something to buy so then we can figure out what we can build and how much it will cost. The first person who probably had to go through therapy after joining me on this effort was dan mckue our real estate representative and literally we worked for two and a half yeas s to get to this site and bewent through three pricing scoping and buying exercises and so forth. Did you thank you, dan, for working with me and still being able to call me a friend. We also have identified an al allstar team to help us with this kitchen and build it. The first person i mentioned earlier but i want to call out specifically again is mike bal divrks dwin from kitchen concepts. Mike was chosen not because hes one of the best in the field nationally, but because he served for decades in the meals on wheels in anaheim. When i saw his work there, i said youre the right guy for s us. Youre the person who understand s how were different and uni e unique. Thank you. We also want to thank that we have a local San Francisco lve, local business entrerprise, ja k jackson and lyles architect uru is our architect. The architects could not be here today, but iron ically their parents are. Welcome and thank you for being here. We also have engaged a really good friend of meals on wheels for years, an excellent general contractor ain plant constructin and we have an amazing team assembled under the leadership and the determination of don b libby. We also have a great owners p rep. This is the person that keeps our staff from having to deal with the mash nations and tell us what that means is keith d debrian from skyline partners. Keith, thank you. And an amazing three iio of peoe to make sure we build the best building. First is david who is under arrest our operations officer. Frank scotted our director of facilities. An amazing asset to the organization. The guys that keep s me out of jail as well as making sure having money in the bank is the cfo. [ applause ]. Even with the bestlaid pl s plans, we would not be breaking ground today without an Extraordinary Group of organizations and people whove g come together to allow us to move this process forward quickly and they have done there through this through the new market task credit process. For those of you who dont know what those are, youre blessed. [ laughter ]. But just for the sake of education, basically the federal government incentivize s throug tax credits investment s and stressed communityies, programs that serve dis advertistreasurer that serve dis advertistreasur s distressed populations. Our propositiject definitely f t that. It aligns credit s that organizations manage to give to projects and theyre aligned with these approved projects and then at the eback end take s a ba bank credit. At the end of the day thats going to deliver about 8. 1 million to this project. [ applause ]. I just want to really acknowledge the team that really have pushed this forward quickly on this project. First of all , david wilkin sos has been our consultant from Northern CaliforniaCommunity Loan fund. Thank you, david. Thank you for helping me understand this weave of stuff and so forth. Leading the way to make sure that we anchor the new market tax credit that we needed for the project is the city of San Francisco and the San FranciscoCommunity Investment fund, or as we call it sfif. Without them jumping in and p putting their projestamp on thi project, i dont know if othes s would have joined as easily. We just wareally want to thank e sfif for supporting us. Along side of the sfif, San Francisco sfif was california loan fund who in vvested with u early as well. The group that put us over the top is an Organization CalledCommunity Impact partners which is more of a National Partner and they came in to push us forward as well. The irony is that two of these organizations are doing more than just giving us credits. Theyre actually funding our construction loan and thats Community Vision and Community Impact partners. We want to thank you for keeping us sane and giving us that option. We really appreciate it. I mentioned only the the back et a Bank Investor partner usually comes into a project like this, that partner is j. Pvmentep. Mo chase. We want to thank them to chase bank. Lastly, obviously you know that in order to put together a complex transaction you have to have a good team around you and i want to thank liouise rodrige and also chris and brine and v novaradik our cpa. Youre probably going like, gee, thats a lot of people, but its not the end. We ultimately also have to bridge our pledges the jen ro generosity the people have pledged to make sure we dont have longterm debt. We need a bridge loan, we want to thank our piartner First Republic bank to bridge that pledge loan and fragile for frankly for banking our loan. Well mention again later, they also gave quite a big gift to the campaign. Thank you. Its now my pleasu