Site for a bigger mission
Monday was a day Greater Washington County Food Bank President Peg Wilson thought she would never see – her organization’s ownership of its food distribution facilities.
The food bank closed on the purchase of the former Country Fresh Market along Route 40 in Centerville Borough, a 24,500 square-foot facility Wilson and others said will enable them to more efficiently serve more of those in the county that are in need of food.
The property, which the food bank is buying for $1.1 million, includes 22 acres of land the group said can be developed into food crops to add to the bank’s donated food, which is expected to surpass 2.5 million pounds this year.
For the past 20 years, GWCFB has rented a building that includes a 9,400 square-foot warehouse along Route 519 in Eighty Four, but has become inadequate as the organization’s demands have grown.
Kelly Backo, donor relations coordinator, said the organization now serves 5,400 families a month through its 44 pantries around the county. She said the new building includes freezer and cold storage space that will enable the food bank to distribute more meat and fresh produce.
The dream of finding a place to buy that would enable the food bank to expand its operations was, until Monday, an elusive one.
Treasurer Paul Vahaly said the organization looked for land and buildings to buy over the years, but to no avail.
“We have been hunting for a building for years,” he said, adding each time it appeared a deal was in the works, something would always prevent it from being consummated.
But not this time.
“I never thought I’d live long enough to see us” close the deal, Wilson said.
“The new building is everything we’ve ever dreamed of and so much more,” added Executive Director Connie Burd, who like Backo, provided figures to underscore how big the mission of GWCFB has become.
According to Burd, the food bank collected 1.6 million pounds of donated food in 2014, but noted that in the past two months, it has gathered 500,000 pounds and is on target to collect between 2.5 million and 3 million pounds this year.
All of that food doesn’t reach its clients without a lot of help, she added, noting that the food bank logged more than 7,300 hours of volunteer time in the first quarter of this year.
The new site, which includes four loading docks, will enable the more efficient distribution of food to the pantries, but also facilitate more learning about nutrition and cooking, which GWCFB Administrative Manager and Marketing Director Hillary Salmonsen said are vital to the organization’s mission.
She added that the additional acreage around the building can be used to raise food crops for the bank. She said the group plans to be in the new building in September.
Meadows General Manager Sean Sullivan, who is a GWCFB board member, said later Monday that The Meadows, which staged the largest food collection to date for the organization with 217 tons of food, said the casino is assisting GWCFB with its “Summer Capital Campaign” to raise $500,000 between now and Sept. 30. An event at the casino is planned for later in July.
Sullivan, who said he and other volunteers from the casino recently helped the food bank to distribute produce to more than 600 families last month, said that despite the strong economy of the county and the growth of commerce along places like Racetrack Road, “these folks aren’t seeing it.”
According to Backo, the food bank currently reaches about 14,000 of the estimated 25,000 people living in the county who are “food insecure,” or uncertain how they’ll feed themselves.
The new facility, she said, “will enable us to see our mission statement come true, which is ‘No one goes to bed hungry.'”
For more information on the Washington County Food Bank, or to volunteer for the organization, contact Kelly Backo, donor relations coordinator, at 724-229-8175, ext. 5.