LIVE OAK >> More than a decade of community development experience in different sectors both locally and abroad has brought Darren Daley back to the Central Coast, where he was recently named as the director of Meals on Wheels for Santa Cruz County.

Daley started his new job June 20, where he has been overseeing the local chapter of the international organization that delivers meals to homebound seniors. He takes the reins from Lisa Berkowitz who will be retiring at the end of August following 44 years with the organization.

In that time, Daley said he has enjoyed getting to know everyone within Meals on Wheels and its parent organization, Community Bridges.

“Everyone that I’ve met throughout the broader Community Bridges agency and within the Meals on Wheels program has been so warm, receptive and supportive,” he said. “This has just reinforced the things that I’ve felt about the organization and deciding to join.”

Daley also likes that he has gotten to work with Berkowitz, who began working for Meals on Wheels as food services director under its predecessor, the Golden Age Nutrition Program. According to a Community Bridges news release, Meals on Wheels has served more than 10 million meals during her leadership and has served residents in times of need ranging from the floods of 1982 to the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 to the COVID-19 pandemic and CZU Lightning Complex fires of 2020, rising food inflation costs of 2022 and the winter storms and flooding earlier this year.

“I’m very appreciative of Lisa and her commitment to the organization and to the community with a career that spanned 44 years,” said Daley. “I think that’s really remarkable everything she’s done.”

Daley grew up in Boise, Idaho, and attended Arizona State University, where he studied Spanish, even spending a year in Spain and a semester in Mexico. For graduate school, he studied public administration for nonprofit management at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey. From 2012 to 2020, he was a program manager and later managing director of Global Association for People and the Environment based out of Laos focused on food security and environmental sustainability in Southeast Asia.

“I’ve spent the last decade-plus working on food security issues both in the United States and overseas,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time working with different nonprofit organizations overseas as well, but I’m very excited to be returning to Monterey Bay/Santa Cruz County to serve our community here.”

Daley said he saw the position as an opportunity to be part of something bigger than himself, continue his work around food security issues and joining an organization with a strong reputation.

“It’s great to be joining this organization and the broader agency of Community Bridges,” he said. “They provide such an invaluable service to our community, and Meals on Wheels in particular to the older population of Santa Cruz County.”

Daley said he wants to continue the work done under Berkowitz’s leadership and expand on offering the medically tailored meals. One priority is to find a new home base for Meals on Wheels, as its administrative office, kitchen and dining room will be leaving its Live Oak site as the Live Oak School District, which owns the property, is seeking to develop the area for workforce housing.

“That’s an important goal that we’ll be working on,” he said.

In terms of increasing access to funding, Daley said the organization will continue working with its partners and expand its volunteer service network.

“That’s a really important aspect to our program, and we actually have about 50 volunteers that work with us,” he said. “Their support is incredibly meaningful to the work that we do.”

Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino praised the hiring in a statement.

“We are so incredibly excited to be able to welcome Darren into our organization,” he wrote. “His experience and strong commitment to support food insecurity and his deep commitment toward supporting older adults is what is needed after having such a strong directorship and leadership from Lisa Berkowitz who has been leading the program for decades.”

For information on Meals on Wheels, visit Communitybridges.org/mealsonwheels/.