San Benito County in the next nine months could have a new $2.2 million facility that distributes free or subsidized food to low-income and homeless residents.
The Community Food Bank of San Benito County’s new four-acre site with a planned entrance off McCloskey Road will be home to a 13,000-square-foot building, an industrial kitchen, a community garden and edible landscaping, said Mary Anne Hughes, the group’s former chief executive officer.
“We looked all over town and we could not find the right building for what we wanted to do,” Hughes said. “We finally came to the conclusion that we’ll have to build our own.”
The mortgage for the newer and larger site will be about $2,000 a month, less than half of the roughly $5,000 the site pays now, Hughes said. The plan is to have the facility ready to use in January, she said.
Of special interest is the planned commercial kitchen that will allow employees to cook warm meals and freeze, can or pickle extra produce they receive from local farmers.
“That would help us to be able to have fruits and vegetables in the wintertime,” Hughes said, “because they become very expensive out of season.”
The staff members will be able to rent the commercial kitchen to locals in the evenings for extra revenue and to teach classes that emphasize healthy eating.
“A lot of our clients still work with lard and grease and stuff like that and learning how to help them make things better is an excellent deal,” Hughes said.
While the former CEO and the group’s new leader, Maria Lynn Thomas, are celebrating the future plans, food bank leaders clarified that the money must go toward the building project.
“This money wouldn’t be used on food,” Hughes said. “If we weren’t building that building, we wouldn’t have it at all.”
The facility will be funded with a $1.35 million Community Development Block Grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, at least $300,000 in community donations, $150,000 coming from HUD through Congressman Sam Farr’s office and a $500,000-$700,000 loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture with the amount of this mortgage depending on the final costs of the project and the amount the group gets in community contributions.
So far, the food bank put a down payment on a building that is being designed and will be fabricated in October, Hughes said.
The following spring, the food bank hopes to have water ready to use so locals can start planting a community garden on a two-acre lot.
“A lot of our clients work in the fields but they can’t afford to eat what they grow,” Hughes said.
The garden will mean these locals can start putting their agricultural expertise to use by planting their own food. In San Benito County, agriculture is still a huge part of the area’s identity and the local economy. The county’s farmers have been “very generous” and have been known to donate entire pallet loads of zucchini, gifts the group will be able to use better in their new facility, Hughes said.
The industrial kitchen will also include a larger refrigerator and a cooler that keeps produce at a safe temperature, slightly different than the one needed to preserve eggs and meat.
But Hughes is also hoping this new facility will become a true community center, a meeting place for companies, a kitchen for commercial food production and a place to garden for those living with tiny urban backyards.
“I think of it as a community center, as well. People can use it for meetings,” she said. “So we really hope it becomes part of the community and more of a community center, especially with the garden.”
