Gateway Area Development District
Mar 20, 2026
Quarterly readiness exercises will keep backup site prepared to serve meals across five-county region
The Gateway Area Development District successfully tested its backup Regional Kitchen on March 4 during a planned readiness exercise at the new Montgomery County Senior Center.
Regional Kitchen personnel conducted a full-scale operational run at the site, designated Site B, preparing 159 congregate meals for senior centers in Bath, Menifee, Montgomery, Morgan and Rowan counties. Additional meals were produced for MotorMeals, the region's mobile food truck. Site B will operate on a quarterly basis to keep equipment, staffing, and distribution logistics ready.
The test reflects the critical role senior nutrition services play across the five-county Gateway region. GADD's Senior Centers Division connects older adults to essential services that support health and independence, with meals at the forefront of that mission. The primary Gateway Regional Kitchen in Frenchburg prepares and distributes congregate and home-delivered meals to residents age 60 and older. In 2025, it served nearly 35,000 congregate meals and just under 106,000 home-delivered meals to more than 1,000 participants.
Recognizing that any disruption to meal production would directly impact the region's most vulnerable residents, Montgomery County officials and GADD leadership prioritized a backup kitchen during planning for the new senior center. The final design incorporated a fully functional commercial kitchen capable of stepping in quickly — built to mirror the Frenchburg facility on a smaller scale.
The project has a long history. It began in 2018 as a proposal to renovate the former senior center on West Main Street, which presented significant ADA limitations along with ongoing maintenance, accessibility, and safety concerns. In April 2021, services were relocated to the Montgomery County Health and Civic Center to maintain safe, uninterrupted operations while long-term funding and design options were evaluated. That process ultimately shifted the project from renovation to new construction, yielding a purpose-built facility with the backup kitchen capability now proven operational.