DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) - Officials at a Davenport food bank are showing off their large new warehouse that they say will help them better serve a far-flung area of eastern Iowa and western Illinois.
The 60,000-square-foot River Bend Foodbank warehouse is more than double the size of the group’s previous building in Moline, Ill., where the organization had been located for 30 years.
River Bend executive director Tom Laughlin told the Quad-City Times (https://bit.ly/1mGFJtG ) the new building includes a 3,600-square-foot freezer that can hold five tractor-trailer loads of perishable food. Before moving to the larger location, the organization would sometimes need to turn away food donations because of a lack of freezer space.
River Bend opened the warehouse about a month ago and opened it for tours Wednesday.
The organization delivered 8 million pounds of food in 2013 to agencies in five Iowa counties and 17 Illinois counties. Food from River Bend helps about 10,000 people each week, Laughlin said.
“People don’t realize the scope of the hunger problem in the Quad-Cities because it isn’t visible,” said Caren Laughlin, River Bend’s marketing director.
Operations manager Steve Wagenecht said the new warehouse has 15 docks for shipping and receiving, compared to three in Moline. That should increase the organization’s efficiency.
River Bend bought its Davenport building in 2012 for $1.2 million and spent another $1.2 million on renovations, Tom Laughlin said. Much of that funding came from grants from private and public organizations.
Most of the food comes from food distributors, grocery stores and government programs.
The organization hasn’t decided what to do with its old location in Moline.
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Information from: Quad-City Times, https://www.qctimes.com
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