Nourishing Our Communities

Why Now?

When we opened our doors 43 years ago, we served 40,000 students per year, until 2016, when those numbers started to increase rapidly. In our 2023.2024 fiscal year, we served 97,224 students with 9,465 of those students visiting our Southeast Fort Wayne facility. To remain sustainable over the years, we have expanded our services to now develop and design low-literacy curriculum, media, and videos for other health serving organizations. As our services and staffing expand to meet demands, we are outgrowing our 16,000-square-foot facility which houses four themed teaching theaters, staff, and warehouses our educational resources we ship across the globe. While our space was originally designed to house 15 staff members at most, our current staff number has reached thirty-six (36) and counting which is a 200% increase. Our increase in the number of students served is 143%. To continue to accommodate growth, we need to expand our office space while also meeting the health education needs of the communities we serve.

As we enter a new phase of growth, we are launching a 12-million-dollar capital campaign to expand our facilities with the construction of a second building dedicated to enhancing nutritional education and addressing our growing staff needs. This initiative aims to tackle the alarming rise in obesity rates and the decline of essential Home Economics education in our schools by providing a state-of-the-art teaching kitchen, teaching theater, and greenhouses for farm-to-table learning experiences, while also allowing space for our staff to continue growing and still address the health education needs of NE Indiana.

McMillen Health is a debt-free organization residing on nine acres of land. The second facility will be added to our existing campus.

Growth & Expansion:

The proposed expansion includes:

• Teaching Kitchen and Theater: An interactive theater with six teaching kitchen stations providing hands-on culinary experiences, engaging students of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds in learning about nutrition, meal preparation, and the importance of healthy eating.

• Greenhouses: Two greenhouses will be integrated into the design to support our farm-to-table curriculum and foster understanding of sustainable agriculture practices.

• Staff Space: McMillen Health’s staff have more than tripled in the past eight years due to increased demand for our services. Our existing facilities were built to accommodate no more than 15 staff members at a time. Despite converting all available space in our 16,000-square-foot building, we still lack adequate room for our entire staff.

A second building will facilitate our mission to continue offering impactful health education to Northeast Indiana's youth and families.

Listening Session:

• Listening Session 2023-24