Hialeah Ends 43-Year Senior Meal Partnership

Hialeah moved in late April to end a 43-year operating arrangement at Goodlet Park with Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers, the nonprofit that had long provided meals and activities for seniors there. Mayor Bryan Calvo told the group in an April 27 letter to vacate the city-owned facility within 30 days, according to accounts of the letter published Friday. The order affects the senior center at 900 W. 44th Place, a city facility that older residents have used for daily lunches and activities for decades. The dispute has centered on who controls the site, how meal counts are documented and whether seniors who relied on take-home food will see any interruption. ### Why did the city end the arrangement now? An April 27 letter from Calvo said the city was ending what multiple reports described as a decades-old verbal understanding rather than a written contract. In remarks reported Friday, Calvo said the city had concerns about service levels, record-keeping and financial oversight, and called the unwritten setup a liability for Hialeah. Calvo also questioned whether the number of seniors being served matched the level of state funding tied to the program. Yahoo’s republication of the Miami Herald report quoted him saying the city wanted “greater transparency” and clearer data identifying meal recipients. ### What exactly was Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers doing at Goodlet Park? (yahoo.com) Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers says it has operated senior services in South Florida for more than 50 years and provides congregate meals, high-risk nutrition services and other support programs. The nonprofit’s website says qualifying participants in its high-risk nutrition program receive frozen meals to take home on days they cannot attend in person. (yahoo.com) A City of Hialeah program schedule for the Goodlet Adult Center from 2021 said lunch at the site was provided by Little Havana Activity and Nutrition Program and listed the contact number used for that service. Alliance for Aging meal-site rosters also listed Goodlet Park Senior Center under Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers, with a capacity of 250 seats in 2022 and the same address at 900 West 44th Place. (lhanc.org) ### Who is supposed to feed seniors there next? The City of Hialeah says its Local Services Program meal funding is administered with help from the Social Services Department of the Hialeah Housing Authority. The city’s website says that program covers congregate meals at public facilities and elderly housing communities, with meals prepared by Greater Miami Caterers. (hialeahfl.gov) The Hialeah Housing Authority separately says its Hot Lunch Program serves more than 1,968 senior citizens daily and offers meals in group settings as well as other elderly services. Accounts published Friday said city officials planned for the housing authority to take over lunches at Goodlet Park as the site is folded into that network. ### Where could the disruption hit hardest? (hialeahfl.gov) The most immediate risk appears to involve seniors who depended on frozen meals for evenings or weekends. Published accounts of the handoff said Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers had warned that vulnerable participants could lose access during the transition, especially those enrolled in the high-risk nutrition program. (hialeahhousing.org) Goodlet Park has remained listed by the city as the James Goodlet Adult Center, but the current facility page does not spell out the old nonprofit-run lunch arrangement that earlier city schedules showed. The site remains a named senior-services location in Hialeah’s broader adult-program network. ### What records show this was a long-running setup? (hoodline.com) Alliance for Aging rosters from multiple years show Goodlet Park tied to Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers as a funded meal site, including listings in 2020, 2022 and a later roster naming Goodlet Park Senior Center at the same Hialeah address. Those records support the reported history of a long-running relationship at the site, even as the city says the arrangement itself was never formally written down. (hialeahfl.gov) The next concrete step is the transfer of meal operations at Goodlet Park to the Hialeah Housing Authority under the city’s elderly meal program. The facility remains listed at 900 W. 44th Place, and the housing authority and city websites continue to publish meal-program information for Hialeah seniors. (hialeahfl.gov) (allianceforaging.org)