Tom Nardacci, CEO of the Northeast Regional Meals Financial institution in New York, speaks on the grand opening of the Hudson Valley Meals Financial institution's new distribution middle in Montgomery on December four, 2024.
MONTGOMERY — The Hudson Valley Meals Financial institution's enormous new distribution middle in Orange County is lastly open.
On Wednesday afternoon, regional meals financial institution staff and state and native officers celebrated the grand opening, a month forward of schedule, of the 50,000-square-foot warehouse that can considerably enhance their capability to feed Valley residents. of Hudson going through meals insecurity. The location will function the brand new native headquarters for the meals financial institution's 25 employees, plus 30 to 35 new hires.
“Right this moment is a vital milestone for the Hudson Valley Regional Meals Financial institution and the communities we serve,” Tom Nardacci, govt director of the Regional Meals Financial institution of Northeastern New York, stated in a press release. “Sadly, meals insecurity stays a severe risk.” , and the necessity has not diminished because the pandemic.”
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Gov. Kathy Hochul's workplace stated in a information launch that the undertaking is a “generational funding within the area's meals safety infrastructure.”
“No New Yorker ought to ever go hungry, and we’re investing in services and organizations that present crucial sources for anybody going through that devastating actuality,” Hochul stated in a press release. “This new facility will higher be certain that Hudson Valley households and communities have dependable entry to recent, nutritious meals, and that we are able to meet the area's meals safety wants into the long run.”
The Hudson Valley Meals Financial institution is a department of the Meals Financial institution of Northeastern New York, headquartered in Latham. Each function as meals distributors that obtain donations from meals trade companions (together with authorities companies, such because the U.S. Division of Agriculture, in addition to grocery chains and native farms) to assist fill pantries with native meals and different charities. The big regional meals financial institution feeds 350,000 individuals a month in an space stretching from New York's northeastern border to Putnam and Rockland counties within the decrease Hudson Valley.
The Hudson Valley Meals Financial institution serves the six southernmost counties within the Hudson Valley: Sullivan, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland and Putnam.
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The $23 million undertaking in Montgomery, which started building final Could, provides the meals financial institution 4 occasions extra dry space for storing than it had at its warehouse in Cornwall-on-Hudson. For comparability, Nardacci stated the warehouse can solely maintain about two-thirds of one of many new house's many big racks.
Hundreds of volunteers will probably be wanted to run the brand new website, and the meals financial institution and Orange County are planning a recruiting drive.
The undertaking was funded by means of a mixture of private and non-private donations and sources, together with a $10.7 million grant from the federal Coronavirus Assist, Aid, and Financial Safety (CARES) Act administered by the state Division of Housing and Group Renewal, and a $three.7 million grant. grant from Empire State Growth.
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Tom Nardacci, govt director of the Northeastern New York Regional Meals Financial institution, stated a bigger warehouse was wanted as a result of regional meals insecurity has not solely persevered because the pandemic however has elevated. The meals financial institution had distributed four million extra kilos of meals than final 12 months, Nardacci stated throughout a tour of the brand new facility in October.
A bigger website may even enable the meals financial institution to determine new partnerships, together with with native farmers. Its community consists of greater than 400 associate companies to which it distributes meals (£20 million yearly), together with pantries, soup kitchens and emergency shelters. About 85 of these companies are in Orange County, the place the meals financial institution delivers 7 million kilos of meals a 12 months. The brand new facility will enable it to distribute an extra 1 million kilos of meals in Orange County alone, Nardacci stated.