This month, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida launched the “Building Solutions to Hunger” capital campaign, a large-scale fundraising effort that will help build a 100,000-square-foot headquarters.
The facility — to be built near the intersection of Mercy Drive and Old Winter Garden Road in Orlando — will serve more than 55,000 Central Floridians each week. When the current warehouse opened in 1996, Second Harvest provided about 5 million pounds of food to the community. Last year, that figure topped 26 million pounds, and it’s on track to reach 30 million this year.
Dave Krepcho, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank, said “Last year, about one of five Central Floridians needed help putting food on the table, and we had to turn away 2 million pounds of food simply because the food bank ran out of room to store the product. And the worst part is – most of the rejected donations were nutritious, high-quality fresh fruits, vegetables and meats. It’s heartbreaking.”
The campaign goal is to raise $15 million over the next year and already several donors have stepped forward to help get the effort off to a great start with more than $2.5 million already pledged (complete list of donors below) or received thus far. The largest contribution to-date is $2 million from John Morgan and his wife Ultima Morgan. Adding to this momentum, Second Harvest will be able to apply the proceeds from the sale of our Brengle property – approximately $1.5 million – to the campaign. At this point, the new facility land purchase is complete, and construction will start when about 90 percent of the funds are raised.
The capital campaign will fund a new energy-efficient facility that will:
• Provide a 330% increase in freezer storage.
• Include special areas designed for repacking bulk food donations.
• Have much larger loading docks and more forklifts, which will increase the capacity and response time during times of disaster.
• Provide special areas for food recovery from donated food collected by grocery stores and brought to the food bank by the truckload.
• Expand distribution capabilities.
• Provide adequate education space for partnerships with county and state nutritionists to train agencies and clients on building nutritious meals.
• Expand overall capacity and cost efficiency, helping to meet the region’s growing need.
Campaign Donors To-Date:
• Morgan & Morgan, P.A.
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida Board of Directors
• Baker Barrios Architects
• CNL Financial Group, Inc.
• Brasfield & Gorrie
• Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation
• Burke, Hogue, Mills, Inc.
To learn more about the “Building Solutions to Hunger” capital campaign visit www.showmercynow.org or call 407-843-5009.
