Feeding the Valley unveils $5.7 million expansion

Hannah James
·2 min read

MIDLAND, Ga. (WRBL)— Wednesday, Feeding the Valley cut the ribbon on their 24,000 square foot expansion, a project that’s three-quarters the size of their original building.

The newest addition to the Feeding the Valley Midland site, the Aflac Hunger Action Center. This $5.7-million project will more than double distribution to the 17 counties the non-profit serves.

85% of U.S. food banks have seen an increase in demand for assistance and the same is true for Feeding the Valley

“We saw the need to expand. COVID showed us that we need more capacity to help more people in need each and every day on top of such an emergency, the likes of which none of us had seen before,” President and CEO of Feeding the Valley, Frank Sheppard said. “This just gives us the opportunity to store a lot more food, a lot more healthy food, get it in here and get it out in the community.”

The additional space is a 75% increase to their current site. This will increase dry storage by 100%, creating more room to store up to 2 million pounds of food. Plus, additional refrigerators will expand cold storage by 50%, allowing Feeding the Valley to distribute more than 500,000 additional pounds of meat and fresh produce annually.

Not only is storage increasing, but so is workspace. Included in the expansion, a new Volunteer Center that is double their current area allowing more volunteers to work at one time.

“We’re meeting about 60% of the need at 16 million pounds of distribution every year. This site positions us to get to 22-23 million pounds of distribution, and that would help all the 115,000 food insecure people in our coverage area,” Sheppard shared.

Funding for this project came from state, local foundations, and donors.

In 2021, Governor Kemp reallocated unused funds from the American Rescue Plan and the CARES Act to support capital projects for Georgia food banks. Those funds covered more than half of the project.

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