This years marks 25 years of the Erie News Now Food Drive, a partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank. Erie News Now will be counting down to the 25th anniversary by sharing 25 stories.
We begin our series of stories with a look inside the food bank.
Second Harvest Food Bank is nestled on Grimm Drive in the City of Erie. It’s hidden from the road, but once people pull up, it’s quite an operation.
Greg Hall, the Chief Executive Officer brought us inside to show us just how expansive the food bank is.
The shipping and receiving dock is where all the trucks deliver the food and all items are sent out to various food pantries across the Northwest Pennsylvania region.
This space is also home to three coolers set to different temperatures to keep produce like milk and potatoes cold, as well as a freezer that remains at zero degrees.
Next, people can enter the warehouse. It is stacked to the ceiling with boxes and boxes of non-perishable food items.
Every box is labeled with a barcode to show what’s inside and how long it has been on the shelf for.
Most of these boxes are filled with bulk items, but some are filled with donated items too.
A room next to the warehouse is where all the volunteers spend their time packing and organizing boxes that will be shipped out to people in need.
It take a lot of people to run and manage the food bank, from the drivers, to the volunteers, but without them, people in our community would go hungry.
Over the next few weeks, Erie News Now will be highlighting different aspects of the food bank and our partnership with them leading up to our Erie News Now Food Drive on Wednesday, November 19th.