A new era was unveiled Monday for the Langley Meals on Wheels (MOW), as the organization took its first huge step in a new direction.

They’ll continue delivering meals to Langley seniors and shut-ins, assured executive director Dave Stark.

But Aug. 30 will go down in the 30-year-old agency’s history books as the day it launch a new look, a new menu, and some new undertakings.

Monday will also be remembered as the first time that MOW meals were cooked, packaged up, and picked up from the commercial kitchen at the Gateway of Hope homeless shelter and outreach centre.

In past, MOW dinners were prepared at the Langley Lodge. But given current construction to the City’s seniors care facility, MOW had to start looking elsewhere – at least temporarily – for a kitchen capable of preparing 50-plus dinners a day.

“I noticed that when I came here nine months ago, meal service was on a consistent and steady decline over the past seven years,” Stark said.

“Population projections, especially for seniors, was significantly large. We had to do something to ensure first, that the service would survive, and second, that the organization was positioned to deal with huge increases in seniors populations,” he added.

With months of work invested into the meal project, Stark announced that for the first time in years MOW is boasting a steady increase in meal delivers.

But Stark’s work doesn’t end there.

In addition to making changes to the meal program, he was challenged with morphing the organization into something more current and viable.

“There was an opportunity to broaden the scope of our service beyond the typical perception of a hot meal delivered by volunteers to frail seniors,” Stark said. “The new direction now includes serving the ‘nutritionally-challenged’.”

So in addition to unveiling a new logo and website (www.langleymealsonwheels.com), MOW is in the midst of forming a series of new partnerships.

They’re in the midst of partnering with the Langley Boys and Girls Club to develop a healthy and nutritional after-school snack program for 60 to 80 kids from Douglas Park Community School.

Once he secures a $4,000 grant, he hopes to launch the Kids Cafe as a pilot project this fall.

Earlier this year, MOW also partnered with the Township of Langley to offer a bi-weekly Food and Friends program at the Walnut Grove Community Centre. The luncheon, held the second and fourth Thursday of each month from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., is aimed at being a social event with the bonus of affordable, nutritional food for Langley residents 50 years and older.

This fall, a similar Food and Friends program is expected to be started at the Kinsmen Centre in Aldergrove and another program at the Choo Choo’s restaurant in Langley City.

MOW is also assisting in the expansion of Langley’s own Harvest Box program, which provides fruits and vegetables to residents at a fraction of the store-bought cost.

“It’s a huge evolution” during times of limited resources, Stark said. But finances only being part of his reason, he said MOW staff, directors, and volunteers are all seem to be excited about building more new partnerships that can help make Langley a healthy community.

For instance, faced with a mandatory change of location for the meal program, Stark said the newfound partnership with the Salvation Army could open doors for other collaborative feeding initiatives in Langley.

At Monday’s MOW meal kickoff, Township Mayor Rick Green, and Langley City Councillor Gayle Martin toured the Gateway of Hope kitchen, then joined volunteers who were delivering a few of the meals in their respective municipalities.