Area food bank breaks ground for its new site

Perhaps, Bishop Cecil Downing said it best when he declared recently that we need not go to other countries to witness the need to feed the hungry, when the problem persists in our own back yard.

These words were part of the prayer said at the ground breaking of a brand new warehouse for the Bay Area Food Bank, Thursday, in the Santa Rosa Industrial Park.

Since 2002 the food bank has been leasing a building in Pace to help meet the needs of the Panhandle, but as Branch manager, Marcus Ditty points out, it is not sufficient.

“The current facility is not large enough and has limited refrigerator and freezer capacity,” says Ditty.

With no back up generator, “it is in no way disaster ready,” he says. “Since our mission is to provide disaster relief, and domestic hunger relief, it’s not compatible.”

In addition to being larger, the new building will feature back up power. This means in the case of a hurricane the office will be up and operational, distributing food within 24 hours of a storm .

The new facility will also act as a storm shelter for its staff and will be able to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, just so people will be on hand to immediately begin distributing food.

The Food Bank has purchased two acres of land in the Santa Rosa Industrial Park and now faces the challenge of raising the 1 million dollars needed to construct the facility.

Ditty is only partially joking when he jests, “if someone wants to write us a 1 million dollar check we’ll love them forever,” but the money to build the new warehouse must come from the same revenue currently running the organization, namely, donations from individuals, corporations, or grants.

Ditty says he hopes construction will be completed by Spring of 2008, and no later than the start of next year’s hurricane season on June 1.

The Bay Area Food Bank was organized in 1981 and serves people from the Louisiana state line, through eight counties in Mississippi, nine counties in Alabama, and seven in Florida— a 20,000 square foot service area and 10 million pounds of food across three states.

It collects, warehouses, and redistributes food to Manna Food Pantry in Pensacola, 120 churches, and large non-profit organizations such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

“If they’re feeding people,” Ditty says, “we’re probably associated with them, or a partner.”

Vicki Escarra is President and CEO of America’s Second Harvest-The Nations Food Bank Network, an organization made up of 205 individual food banks of which the Bay Area Food bank is just one.

Escarra says ten percent of Americans live at or below the poverty line. She explains, “one in ten live in a food insecure situation, that means they are not sure where their next meal is coming from.”