Courtesy Kitchen Angels
News
After 31 years serving with local nonprofit Kitchen Angels, Executive Director Tony McCarty today announced his upcoming retirement slated for the final day of 2024.
“The organization is in a strong and stable place with programming and financially and its current direction,” McCarty, 70, tells SFR. “I’m not getting any younger, so it seems like a great time. The board is strong and supportive of the change, so everything seems to be aligned.”
Kitchen Angels’ mission has been a simple but vital one—to feed homebound and/or chronically ill Santa Feans who would otherwise struggle to obtain nutritious meals. The nonprofit was founded in 1992 and originally operated out of the Westminster Presbyterian Church with a mere 30 volunteers and 35 clients. Within the first six months, Kitchen Angels reportedly racked up 80 clients and served 2,000 meals; by 1996, according to the nonprofit’s website, it served its 50,0000th meal; in 2023, it celebrated 2 million meals served; and today, McCarty says, it boasts 350 volunteers and serves thousands of meals per month.
McCarty joined the org in its 1992 inaugural year as a volunteer and became its executive director by 1993.
“Y’know, I didn’t,” he says with a laugh when asked if he’d had previous nonprofit experience. “I had business experience, but it all happened very quickly from the time I started volunteering. I was the only paid employee, too, for the first seven years of the organization’s history.”
Under McCarty, paid positions rose. Today, Kitchen Angles counts seven full-time workers and two part-timers. McCarty was also instrumental in scaling and organizational growth and instrumental in the capital campaign that funded the nonprofit’s forever home at the former Coll Green Angel Depot in 2001. At the time, the complex also housed The Food Depot and nonprofit pantry Feeding Santa Fe, the latter of which unfortunately dissolved during the pandemic. The Food Depot, however, outgrew its old space years ago and continues to feed Santa Feans from its Siler Road HQ; Kitchen Angels now takes up the entirety of its space.
McCarty also helped launch numerous food-forward initiatives in Santa Fe, including the Santa Fe Food Policy Council dedicated to food accessibility and the Kitchenality kitchenware resale store, which helps fund Kitchen Angels. There is perhaps no more popular program, however, than the annual Angels Dine Out event each spring, which finds dozens of local restaurants donating a portion of a day’s sales to Kitchen Angels. That program hit its 25th anniversary in 2024.
In other words, McCarty will leave behind some pretty big shoes when he departs in December. Still, he says, he’s looking forward to spending some time painting in his garden and catching up with friends and family. He also hopes to get back into volunteering down the road a bit, after some rest, of course, and he’ll consult with Kitchen Angels to help hire its next executive director.
“It’s been an absolute honor to keep Kitchen Angels poised to handle Santa Fe’s needs, and we’ve set up the organization for success, so I’m hopeful the new person will come in and respond to the needs of the community,” McCarty says. “We have a tsunami of an aging population in Santa Fe who will need food, and while not all of that population will rely on Kitchen Angles, a portion will—there will come a time for tremendous growth for the organization, and [the new executive director] will have to think in a strategic way to be prepared for the aging population.”
Kitchen Angels Vice President of Philanthropy Dwayne Trujillo tells SFR the search for McCarty’s successor will begin at home with local candidates. Failing that, Trujillo adds, the nonprofit would begin a national search. In the here and now, however, Trujillo says McCarty’s pending departure feels like the end of an era.
“I’ve been here about six years, and he’s been an amazing mentor who has taught me so much,” Trujillo says. “Best boss I’ve ever had.”
