TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Second Harvest of the Big Bend cut the ribbon on a $10 million expansion that will allow the food bank to receive, sort and distribute more food to hungry families.
Second Harvest of the Big Bend celebrated the grand opening of its new Impact Center with a ribbon cutting Thursday morning.(WCTV)
“Families across the 16-county service area are going to be impacted with more food, more produce, and more dairy that they need and deserve,” said Second Harvest of the Big Bend CEO Jacob Reiter.
Hundreds gathered Thursday for the grand opening of Second Harvest of the Big Bend’s new Impact Center.(WCTV)
Hundreds of people gathered for the Impact Center’s grand opening Thursday morning. The new 28,000-square-foot building features offices, classrooms, kitchens and more.
It also doubles the space for volunteers to sort and pack food.
Longtime volunteers Nancy Sanguiliano and Frank Douglas say it’s a game changer.
“There’s definitely much more space and much more lighting,” Douglas said. “We’re just going to be able to provide for more families … it’s just a great thing,” Douglas said.
The new Impact Center doubles the space for volunteers to sort and pack food.(WCTV)
“You see so many people who are willing to roll up their sleeves, do something for people they’ll never meet and to make sure that we can provide food and hope for a lot of people in the community,” Sanguiliano said.
That volunteer space is now named after Jeremy and Tracey Cohen, who chaired the capital campaign that raised more than $10 million for the expansion.
Jeremy and Tracey Cohen chaired the capital campaign which raised more than $10 million to build the new Impact Center.(WCTV)
“We heard plenty of yes’s, we also heard plenty of no’s and more than a few people who doubted the vision. One of those no’s came very early and it came with confidence. Someone told us flat out, ‘This will never happen. No way you can raise $10 million in Tallahassee.’ Well, this morning we are standing in front of 28,000 square feet that says otherwise,” Jeremy Cohen told the crowd.
“Together this community raised more than $13 million and because of that Second Harvest of the Big Bend owns this building and this land outright. Not a lease, not a loan, but owned and ready for the future, ” Tracey Cohen said. “That matters because it means every dollar given from here forward goes to feeding people.”
Second Harvest of the Big Bend celebrated the grand opening of its Impact Center Thursday.(WCTV)
“This campaign allowed us to do two things,” said Monique Ellsworth, who served as CEO during the capital campaign started. “It allowed us to re-rack the whole facility, doubling the capacity, the amount of food we can actually store here and two, doubling the size of the volunteer area.”
The crowd celebrated knowing this will add to the more than 15 million meals Second Harvest was able to provide last year to families in some of Florida’s hungriest counties.
Second Harvest says this new building is built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane and has backup generators so it can stay online and available to help.
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