Almost 90 percent of food distributed by the Harry Chapin Food Banks of Southwest Florida comes from outside the area. Part of the reason is a lack of proper storage space for donated food. But that could soon change. The food bank is raising money to build a warehouse… which could house locally-grown foods, like citrus and vegetables. Director of Development – John Morill says the food bank gets more offers for food than it can handle…

“We have been offered millions and millions of pounds – literally dozens of truckloads a week of this kind of product. However we don’t have the warehouse to be able to contain that. Once we’re stabilized in about 18 months, and we can start distributing that kind of food around here and having nutrition education classes, we can begin to ship that kind of food to other food banks.”

Morril says in addition to benefiting southwest Floridians, food banks across the country would love to get ahold of more fresh produce. Besides storing food – the new facility would contain a “community kitchen”—to train people in cooking and food service. The Harry Chapin Food Bank serves people in Collier, Charlotte, Hendry, Glades and Lee counties – from a 30-thousand square foot facility located near downtown Fort Myers. It distributes more than 4 million pounds of food to nearly 160 non-profit agencies in southwest Florida every year.