Mid-Ohio Foodbank Visit

Last week I had the chance to take a tour of the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, which is located in Grove City, Ohio. This is a brand new facility for the Foodbank. The Foodbank bought an old mattress factory and repurposed it for the Foodbank needs.

All donations and distributions happen out of this facility. It is also home to all of the administration offices as well.

It’s a HUGE building.

I met up with Jessica on a Wednesday afternoon to chat about the Foodbank, take a tour, and discuss some volunteer opportunities with her.

The service area for the Foodbank is rather large, covering just about the entire midsection of the state. They distribute a great deal of food and despite the gigantic size of their storage areas, the food doesn’t stay around for long.  There is a huge turnover.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, in 2010 they delivered 39.7 Million pounds of food to their 500 partner agencies that then distributed the food to 20 counties in Central Ohio.

That’s a lot of food in one year!

Those are pallets of peanut butter waiting to be sorted and packaged up for distribution. That’s not even all of the PB, it goes back a lot farther!

Thanks to the great help of volunteers who do all of the packing and checking of foods to make sure they aren’t expired, damaged, or past ripe. Volunteers handle about 20% of the food at the Foodbank. Last year the Foodbank received help from over 12,000 volunteers.

The building itself has several sponsors who have donated money to make the new building the best it possibly can be.

Being environmentally friendly was a big consideration for the Foodbank and their new location.  By repurposing an old building and using recycled materials throughout the building where possible, they have obtained a LEED Gold Certification.

When you first walk into the Foodbank you are greeted by this glass wall which looks directly into one of the food storage areas.  It’s not only an attractive piece of structure but it also provides a glimpse into the operations that go on in the building.

There is also a brand new demo kitchen that houses some pretty intense appliances! For 2011 the Foodbank is working on providing more cooking and nutrition information along with providing food to those in need.

They also have a garden which produced over 1400 pounds of produce last year. And they have a brand new pantry section which they are currently developing programs for so they can open it up to the community.

The Foodbank does a lot!

The Foodbank is always looking for volunteers and those willing to donate their time or food to help a great cause.  You can register here to volunteer!

I thank the Foodbank for taking the time to give me a tour and tell me about the facility. I can’t wait to volunteer with them!

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