Second Harvest fundraising to build new cold storage facility
By Chris Fortune
A local food bank is nearing its fundraising goal on a project that will address storage needs and streamline the pickup process.
Options were initially explored for a cold storage building at Second Harvest Community Food Bank when CEO Chad Higdon was on the board of directors in 2008. At the time, they were looking at facility improvements in the office space and warehouse.
“This is something that we’ve really been working on for a long time,” he said. “We just have a very small cooler. We’re distributing 3 or 4 million pounds of produce and doing that with a 400-square-foot cooler right now and only 12 pallet locations in the cooler.”
At a meeting with the Buchanan County Commissioners, Higdon said he sometimes must turn away loads of food due to a lack of cold storage space. The planned 11,000-square-foot cold storage building would help solve the issue.
“We’re moving a lot of fresh produce, and the cold storage expansion is really going to help us really keep that product safer and a better temperature to expand the shelf life,” he said.
The new facility will also benefit local donors. Currently, they drive into the warehouse, where volunteers are sorting food.
“It creates a little bit of a safety issue,” he said. “So this new space is going to have a dedicated agency pickup area for local donations to be dropped off.”
A groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for two months from now. Second Harvest has raised $2.7 million of its $3.5 million goal for the project.
“Right now, we’re going out to bid to subcontractors, and then we’ll have a firm price on what the project’s going to cost and can really finalize that fundraising,” he said.
Once construction begins, Higdon said the project will probably take eight months to complete, so he hopes for the project to be completed by the end of 2024.
“We’re working to secure permits with the city, talking to the county about doing some in-kind work right now,” he said. “So there’s just a lot of things that are coming together at the right time.”
Higdon said anyone interested in helping, seeing the facility or learning about what Second Harvest is doing can reach out at (816) 364-3663.
“I’d be happy to show you around and kind of help you understand ways that you can really help make this happen for us,” he said.
