FORT PIERCE — Treasure Coast Food Bank has opened a new 130,000-square-foot facility in Fort Pierce, expanding its capacity to store food, prepare meals and provide additional resources to people across the Treasure Coast.
The expansion includes an 80,000-square-foot warehouse that can hold the equivalent of 100 semi-truckloads of food. Food bank President Judith Cruz said the additional space will give the organization more flexibility when purchasing and accepting food donations.
"Sometimes we have to pass up stuff because we just didn't have the room to be able to bring it in and store it," Cruz said. "So having the capacity to bring in additional truckloads of product when things are on sale or there's a really good opportunity to buy out there, we can take advantage of that and in the long run stretch our dollars."
The facility also includes 16,000 square feet of refrigerated and frozen storage, allowing the food bank to accommodate more fresh produce and perishable items, along with a 15,000-square-foot production kitchen.
The kitchen can prepare up to 25,000 meals a day, a capability that has already been put to use following recent flooding across the region.
"We'll be able to greatly increase that number," Cruz said. "Just in the last few days with the disaster, you know, we put this to test and the efficiency flows in the kitchen area have really increased tremendously."
With flooding increasing the need for food assistance, Cruz said the organization is seeking additional support from the community, both through volunteers and financial contributions.
"We are looking for help. We're looking for volunteer help, but we're also looking for financial donations to help support neighbors that have lost their homes, that lost really everything," she said. "We're finally seeing the size of the impact today. We need all the help that we can get right now. We have to take care of our neighbors."
Beyond immediate hunger relief, the food bank hopes the new facility will help people build greater financial stability through job training programs.
Cruz said providing opportunities for residents to develop marketable skills and earn higher wages can help address some of the underlying reasons families struggle with food insecurity.
"A lot of times it's that living wage that is preventing them from having a healthy overall food budget, right, or household budget," she said. "So being able to give folks some training in certain areas that will allow them to increase from minimum wage to a higher dollar-per-hour rate will enable them to really lift up their families."
Cruz said the broader goal is to create lasting benefits for the community beyond the food bank's immediate services.
"The hope is that the impact that we can make in the community will be extremely significant and that this organization will leave some type of lasting legacy for the community and strengthen it in a way not just with folks struggling with food insecurity, but giving people the tools that they need to live a healthier lifestyle," she said.
The new facility also includes a resource center for residents and community partners, a produce washing and packaging area, and an air-cooled warehouse designed to provide a more comfortable environment for volunteers.