Hollister
– In anticipation of a growing hunger problem in the community,
the Santa Cruz-San Benito Second Harvest Food Bank commenced
construction yesterday on a brand new Watsonville facility designed
to nearly double annual food distribution.
Hollister – In anticipation of a growing hunger problem in the community, the Santa Cruz-San Benito Second Harvest Food Bank commenced construction yesterday on a brand new Watsonville facility designed to nearly double annual food distribution.
With $1.9 million in the bank, Second Harvest is working to raise $4.3 million to purchase and renovate the facility. The facility will be able to handle about 10 million pounds of food each year. It will help expand Second Harvest’s operations with new receiving and loading docks and increased cooler and freezer space, said spokeswoman Christine Woodard.
Executive Director Willy Elliott-McCrea called Thursday’s ground-breaking a “milestone” for the food bank.
“As we begin construction on the new facility we will be witnessing the fulfillment of a dream,” he said in a statement. “The dream of finally creating the infrastructure necessary to insure that no one will go hungry in Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. With local support, we can build a well-nourished community.”
Second Harvest, which serves 44,000 people each month through 160 agencies and programs, is vital to hundreds of San Benito County residents, said Mary Anne Hughes, executive director of Community Pantry. Second Harvest supplies Community Pantry with nearly 500,000 pounds of food each year. Second Harvest distributes food and serves as a clearinghouse for other organizations that deliver food. And hunger is a growing problem in San Benito County, Hughes said. Community Pantry serves about 500 local families each month, Hughes said.
“In the next two years we will have to double our output to meet increasing need,” she said. “We’ll have to go from about 1 million pounds of food a year to about 2 million.”
Second Harvest’s expansion mirrors the need for local growth, Hughes said.
“We need Second Harvest to grow because they provide us with half our food,” she said. “Right now we are reaching about 8 percent of the population, but about 25 percent of the population is below poverty level. There are many more out there that need us.”
Second Harvest’s move comes just months before Community Pantry’s own relocation to downtown Hollister.
After months of looking for a new location, the pantry has found a likely prospect for its new home. Even more important, the Hollister Redevelopment Agency seems inclined to offer financial help so the pantry can get settled.
For more than a decade, pantry volunteers worked out of a building at the Hollister Municipal Airport. In December, the organization was told that it would have to find a new home because Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit non-aviation operations using airport property.
For months, the future of the pantry was uncertain – the city let the pantry use the airport building rent-free, and the organization has little money to pay rent or build a new facility. The pantry has located a suitable building in downtown Hollister on Hazel Street, and RDA board members said that they supported the use of RDA funds to help the pantry remodel the building and cover operating costs for a couple of years.
The remodel will cost about $125,000. Operating costs, including about $1,300 in rent, will be about $25,000 each year, he said, adding that after a few years the Community Pantry will likely find alternative funding sources.
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
