The United States Veterans Initiative – Long Beach, located at the Villages at Cabrillo, will receive $800,000 to construct a new commercial kitchen, Supervisor Don Knabe announced today.
The new kitchen and dining area, which will serve as a location for homeless veterans to receive meals, will be located in a 6,375 square foot rehabilitated building at 2220 Williams Avenue on the grounds of the Century Villages at Cabrillo. The project consists of renovating a dilapidated kitchen, and adding a small food grill/sandwich shop that will be staffed by residents of the Veterans Initiative. The project will provide needed cooking space and storage capacity, meet the recommendations of the Veterans Affairs dietician, and create a job training program for the veterans.
The kitchen facilities that are currently at the Veterans Initiative are completely inadequate in meeting the needs of the growing veteran population, said Supervisor Knabe. I am excited about this project because these new facilities will allow the staff to prepare a variety of high quality meals for our veterans.
The total cost of the project is $800,000, with funds coming from two different sources. The first $400,000 is coming from Fourth District Capital Project funds and the remaining $400,000 will come from the $80 million in funding for Countywide homeless prevention initiatives that was approved by the Board of Supervisors last year.