TULSA, Okla. — Big changes are coming to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.
Mayor G.T. Bynum grabbed a shovel, participating in Friday’s groundbreaking on a $28 million dollar expansion project.
“We know, that there are so many of our neighbors,” Bynum said, “in Eastern Oklahoma who suffer from food insecurity, we also know that there are so many Oklahomans who want to help them.”
While the official “ground breaking” for the expansion took place on Friday morning, construction began back in December. The food bank hopes to have the expansion complete by the summer of 2023.
They have some ambitious goals; they hope the additional space out here will allow them to double the amount of food available for distribution.
Construction workers in hard hats are already busy at work laying the groundwork for the expansion.
“We are bursting at the seams,” said Calvin Moore, President and CEO of the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma.
Moore says additions on both ends of the current building will allow for new storage facilities, offices and additional warehouse space.
“It is an incredible need,” he explained, “I think it was exacerbated by COVID and by the pandemic, and when we saw that need really grow we thought it was going subside a little bit, but it has not.”
Moore says they want to expand their footprint from about 78,000 square feet to about 150,000 square feet, giving them room to double the amount of food available for distribution on an annual basis.
“This expansion project will allow us to double that to about 65 million pounds of food,” he explained.
The project also includes a new volunteer entrance, new agency shopping space, and a state of the art culinary center to help with meal production.
According to the Community Food Bank, cold storage is really the key to being able
to provide nutritious food, and the expansion will allow them to take on more produce.
“One of the things that families cut back on first is produce,” Communications Director Greg Raskin explained, “because its expensive and it will go bad and no one wants to spend money on food that they’ll end up throwing away. So this is our way of getting more nutritious food.”
Raskin says 1 in 6 Oklahomans and 1 in 4 children in Oklahoma suffer from food insecurity:
“This is an ongoing problem in Oklahoma,” he said, “we have chronic hunger issues, Oklahoma has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the country.”
Raskin says the need for their services has not diminished in Eastern Oklahoma:
“We’ve really had to gear up quite a bit during the pandemic,” he said, “and now with inflation we’re anticipating there will be more families that will be struggling so we just want to be sure to be there for the families having a hard time from paycheck to paycheck.”
At 27.3 million dollars, the Community Food Bank has almost reached its fundraising goal thanks to donations from foundations and individuals including the Mabee Foundation, Ruth K. Nelson, the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation and Debbie Zinke.
It’s also interesting to note, philanthropist Mackenzie Scott donated about $10 million dollars towards the expansion project.
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