This week the Foodbank is breaking ground on an addition to their building on Armor Place in Dayton.
The Foodbank in Dayton is the smallest of the 12 locations across Ohio, but it has the sixth highest reported need. Now, thanks to donations from the community, The Foodbank will have more room to store food people are in need of.
Lee Lauren Truesdale, Chief Development Officer with The Foodbank, said, “This building we’re located in is 31,000-square-foot. It was built to acquire and distribute 15 million pounds of food. Last year, we distributed 18 million pounds, so we’ve already outgrown the building.”
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Truesdale said when the building was built eight years ago, they knew there was the potential to outgrown it, and these past two years have pushed the limits.
“The community has seen the increase in need in 2019 because of the tornados and in 2020 because of COVID, so there’s a need. We know we’re going to need to have additional need. We want to prepare for the possibility of future need, and we want to be able to take in as much non-perishable food as possible,” Truesdale said.
The 6,000-square-foot, $842,000 addition will house non-perishable foods.
Truesdale continued by saying, “That sounds maybe cheap, but we make sure the building is food safe with cement floors, metal on the exterior so that helps reduce the cost.”
The money is coming from community donations.
“We used funds given in response to the tornadoes and COVID that were in excess. We made sure those urgent needs were met at the time. Bought food, did extra distributions and the donations the community gave to us, we were able to put back into the building,” Truesdale said.
In the next one to three years, Truesdale said The Foodbank will also need to add another addition for cold storage.
“Right now, our storage unite is about 27,000 cubic feet and we distribute a ton of fresh producer through that. Fresh, frozen products such as milk and dairy, so we’re committed to distributing those items too,” Truesdale said.
The Foodbank broke ground this week and the plan is for it to be finished by the start of the holiday season.