Meals of Joy

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN: 472668533
IRS 990-EZ coverage: 2017–2025
Forms available: Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2016
Location: Litchfield Park, AZ, USA
Phone: 6235949588
Rating: 91
Verdict: STRONG
Rating confidence: Moderate
Sector: Human Service Organizations

Reported finances

Revenue: $35,684
Expenses: $41,461
Assets: $0
Liabilities: $0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

10 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

Jim Frey (President)
John Pugsley (Vice President)

People named in this filing

Larry Cervarich (Founder (Retired and resigned in July 2025))
Cynthia Knaut (Secretary (Had temporary leave while Dir of Ops in 2024))
Jim Frey (President)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Meals of Joy enhances the life quality of vulnerable seniors and veterans by addressing food insecurities, social isolation and loneliness to help our aging population live a healthy, active life. Unfortunately, MOJ was not able to build a funding network to sustain its operations and had to cease operations in fiscal 2025-26.

What it reported doing in 2025

Meals of Joy was able to continue to provide services to its clientele base until it ran out of funds. The number of meals provided were approximately 2,000.

Operating model

Revenue model: Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
Distribution model: Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 46% for direct work, and 54% for grants.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

Financial Efficiency: 95
Transparency & Controls: 95
Sustainability: 19
Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
Program expense ratio: 87.5%; rating input score 87

Transparency & Controls

Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

Operating margin: -16.2%; rating input score 24; 24th percentile among comparable filings
Total-asset coverage ratio: 0; rating input score 3; 3rd percentile among comparable filings
Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

Program expense growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
Revenue growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
Asset growth: 3.1% per year; rating input score 100; 50th percentile among comparable filings

Details

Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 87.5% of spending went to programs
Governance: Filed governance answers
Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $36K in reported program spending
Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 10 people listed
Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
Schedules: 4 filed schedules
Filing history: 2 filing years from 2017 to 2025
Contacts: How to reach this organization
Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 24/100.
High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 3/100.
Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.