Page 37 - BusinessWest April 18, 2022
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  A rendering of the future Chicopee home of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, set to open in 2023.
  BusinessWest
NONPROFITS APRIL 18, 2022 37
Growth Is on the Menu
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Moves Closer to a New Home
While it manages an impressive flow of food from numerous sources to the people who need it most,
in recent years, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts has been doing that job in a space that’s not sufficient for the work. That will change with the opening, in 2023, of a new headquarters in Chicopee that will more than double the organization’s space and allow it to serve more people with more food and more nutrition and educations — in effect, expanding the menu of what’s possible at a time when the need is great.
TBy Joseph Bednar
he Food Bank of Western Massachusetts was launched in a Hadley barn 40 years ago. Four years later, it relocated to its current facility in Hatfield.
Today, as one of four regional food banks in Massachusetts, the organi- zation provides food to 172 food pantries, meal sites, and shelters in Berk- shire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties. Its food sources include the state
and federal government, local farms — including two of its own — retail and whole- sale food businesses, community organizations, and individual donations.
The organization also provides other forms of food assistance, such as nutrition workshops, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enrollment assis- tance, and education, public-policy advocacy, and engagement around issues of food insecurity.
That’s a lot of food and a lot of people being served, and not enough space to do it all. In fact, the Food Bank has had to turn away about a million pounds of food dona- tions over the past three years, said Andrew Morehouse, its executive director.
The need for a new facility is nothing new, but the reality of one is finally on the near horizon, with a $19 million, 63,000-square-foot facility breaking ground in Chi- copee next month and set to open next year, more than doubling the organization’s current 30,000 square feet of space.
Those are gratifying numbers, Morehouse said.
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