Nonna's Cucina Story

In 1998, after a decade of lobbying, funding was allocated by the Office of the Ageing to Multicultural Aged Care (MAC) for a culturally appropriate meal service that would assist people to remain living in their own homes.

In 1999, PISA's forerunner, the Italian Meal Service, was established under the auspice of Multicultural Aged Care (MAC) with funding provided by the Home and Community Care (HACC) program. The Executive Team, consisted of Franca Antonello, Silvio Iaderola and Gosia Skalban who wrote the organisation's first policies which guided its operations.

At this time meals were purchased from the St Hilarion Aged Care Facility to serve clients in the western and southern suburbs and the Italian Benevolent Foundation to serve clients in the eastern suburbs. They were delivered by volunteers who were familiar with the Italian culture and language.

In 2004, the Italian Meal Service separated from MAC and became an incorporated independent body. It took the trading name PISA, which is an abbreviation of: Pasti Italiani e Servizi per Anziani and became responsible for managing its own finances and reporting mechanisms.
At this time Nonna's Cucina moved to its premises at Firle where it has a fully functioning kitchen that enabled it to begin cooking its own authentic Italian meals and begin to serve clients in Adelaide's north-eastern suburbs.

In 2011, Nonna's Cucina fulfilled its strategic plan by opening another kitchen/café at Torrensville. We operated out of the 2 kitchens for a period of 5 years.

In 2017, PISA amalgamated the services into a brand new kitchen at 12 Hardy Street Royal Park. We have satellite drop off points where volunteers meet to pick up the eskies for delivery to clients.

In 2018, PISA purchased the building and fulfilled its strategic plan.

In 2019, PISA, became Nonna's Cucina, made with love, shared with joy.

In 2020, we realised we could reach out to more people in the community by being diverse and creating a new menu. We introduced an alternative called The Grandma Menu to cater for clients who enjoy another variety of dishes.