North Country Food Bank Raising Money for New Facility

The North Country Food Bank in Crookston has been in its current downtown facility since the early 80’s and they raising money for a new facility after they received money from the state in the last bonding bill.
Both the Department of Agricultural and Feeding America have deemed North Country to be operating in non-compliance according to Development Director Anthony Hebert. “We have been deemed to be in non-compliance, we haven’t gotten a firm date to have a new building or be shut down, but we need to move in that direction because the building we’re in is inadequate to fulfill the contract we have.”
The food bank must meet the same codes as any business in the food market to repackage product, and the current facilities do not meet those codes leaving the food bank to have to turn down bulk donations or ship them out to be repackaged. A new facility will include a clean room for handling product, increased storage both in the warehouse and in freezers. They will also get a produce cooler to extend the life of produce, meaning they won’t have to turn down produce that can’t be delivered immediately and that many of the reasons why they need a new facility.
The new Food Bank warehouse and office would be located just south of the Agassiz Townhomes that are currently being built on North Broadway. The facility will cost $6 million, with staff hoping to break ground in Spring 2019. They have received a State Bond to match funding dollar for dollar up to $3 million for the cost of the facility.  So far including bond money, they have raised $3,679,538. They are holding town halls to reach out to prospective donors or people who might know of prospective donors who can help them accomplish their goal of funding the facility to help the hungry in Northwest and West Central Minnesota.
Hebert described the benefits the advance capacity would have for the region. “We’d jump well above 10 million meals almost overnight. There are times we have to turn down food because don’t have space,” said Hebert. “Our mission is to feed all the hungry people in our service area, so to have to turn down food somebody wants to donate is really hard, but at this point, it’s something we have to do.”
Most people wouldn’t think there is a hunger problem in Northwest and West Central Minnesota added Hebert. “But if you look at what we do every year, our numbers go up every year.  Ultimately our goal is to eliminate hunger and food insecurity in our service area and a new building will move us closer to that goal every day.”
The North Country Food Bank serves 21 counties, distributing nearly 10 million pounds of food or the equivalent of 8.33 million meals a year to the nearly 40,000 residents of Northwest Minnesota who are struggling with hunger.  Most of the 40,000 are children, the food bank hands out 10,000 bags of food to children who are struggling with hunger at schools every Friday, so the children will know they have something to eat over the weekend. The food bank also distributes 70-90 percent of all food in local food shelves in this part of the state.
To help contact Development Director Anthony Hebert at 218-280-7154 or visit www.northcountryfoodbank.org.