Central Illinois Foodbank opens at new facility

Building on East Cook Street helps better serve hungry population

[June 06, 2013]  SPRINGFIELD -- Monday was the first day Central Illinois Foodbank opened its doors to the public and partner agencies at 1937 E. Cook St. in Springfield. The building, donated by Springfield Pepsi, will allow the organization to better serve 150 partner agencies such as soup kitchens, food pantries and residential programs in a 21-county region.

This move comes at a time when need remains consistent -- about a 40 percent increase across the board over the past three years. With the new facility, the Central Illinois Foodbank will be able to offer a greater volume and variety of products to partner agencies serving those at risk of hunger.

The building offers more than 2.5 times the capacity in comparison with the former Moffat Avenue location, as well as several temperature zones of cold storage to manage perishable products such as dairy, produce and frozen items. In addition, safe areas for volunteers have been created where produce can be cleaned and sorted into retail-sized packaging, as most produce comes in bulk shipments. In the past, on-site volunteer opportunities were limited to groups of eight or less.

"We've been working toward this goal for many, many years," explained Pam Molitoris, executive director. "We'd been in our former location for more than 25 years but were distributing more food each year in the same amount of space. Despite our creative efforts, including off-site storage, three-tiered racking and a refrigerated truck parked on-site, we still had to divert more than 1 million pounds of food last year to other regional food banks."

At the new facility, the Central Illinois Foodbank hopes to work toward more sustainable solutions to hunger in the future -- possibly a community garden, educational classes and more. For now, becoming fully operational in the new site is a top priority. For more information, visit www.centralilfoodbank.org.

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Central Illinois Foodbank, established in 1982, distributes more than 8.5 million pounds of food annually to over 150 food pantries, soup kitchens, residential programs and after-school programs in a 21-county region. Central Illinois Foodbank is a member of Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger relief organization, as well as United Way. The mission of the Central Illinois Foodbank is to collect donated food and grocery items from growers, manufacturers, processors, wholesalers and retailers for distribution to charitable agencies serving people in need.

[Text from file received from Central Illinois Foodbank]