HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Excavators and bulldozers dot a now empty lot off Villa Park Drive in Henrico County. In a way, the space will serve as the "new dorm" for Christy Dalton's 18-year career at Feed More.
“Right, yeah it’s moving off to college!" she said about her career with a laugh. “Every time you come out, it’s something new and different.”
Feed More is Central Virginia's hunger relief organization, and progress is well underway already for a brand new facility to better support their operations.
"It’s really amazing and at the heart of it still our need and our want to feed people and to give out hope. So, this new building is going to be amazing because it’s going to allow us to continue our mission, but do it in a way that we’re working in a more efficient space," Dalton said.
A ceremonial groundbreaking program was held Wednesday for Feed More employees, partners, and donors at the new site.
Their current facility on Rhoadmiller Drive near The Diamond was originally two tobacco warehouses. The 100-year-old structures are far from ideal for the modern warehouse and community kitchen operations Feed More runs on a daily basis.
"There’s a pillar in the meeting room, there’s pillars in the kitchen, there’s pillars everywhere you don’t want there to be a pillar. We’ve outgrown that," said Brian Davis, chairman of the board for Feed More.
The new facility will have five times the refrigerator capacity, double the size of the commercial community kitchen, and greatly enhance warehouse efficiency.
Feed More said the need has grown in recent years out of the pandemic because of rising food costs and economic uncertainty. Their workers and volunteers produce 10,000 made-from-scratch meals each week, move 40 to 50 million pounds of food each year, and partner with 250 organizations helping those in need.
"It’s going to be an amazing vessel; it’s going to be a vessel for food; it’s going to be an amazing vessel for people. It’s going to be a vessel for allowing and enabling neighbors to help neighbors," said Doug Pick, the CEO of Feed Moore.
Tanya Gonzalez is the executive director of the Sacred Heart Center in South Richmond, one of the organizations that partner with Feed More. They focus on enhancing prospects for members of the Latino community in Central Virginia, and their food pantry is one part of that mission.
"I think food is one of the social determinants of health," Gonzalez said. "We were able to feed 18,000 people last year.”
Through its partnership with Feed More, Sacred Heart Center has improved its food pantry operations over the past few years, which brings Gonzalez to the big picture of Feed More's big project.
"A key part of this will be efficiency for all of the food pantries to be able to access more food, more efficiently. That, in turn, will translate into more people being fed," she said.
The new facility is expected to open in fall 2024, Feed More said.
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