feeding hope
Rendering of new Culinary Center (Photo courtesy SAFB)
NEW WEAPON IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HUNGER BY MICHAEL GUERRA
T
he San Antonio Food Bank is planning a new 60,000-square-foot facility on the Food Bank’s existing Westside campus, expanding the nonprofit’s reach with the addition of a new production kitchen, a culinary training center, enhanced nutrition education space and a seasonal venison processing plant. The project is set to break ground in the spring of 2020. The new facility will support expanded pro-gramming in the fight against hunger in six key areas.
CULINARY TRAINING
The Food Bank has run a hugely successful culinary training program for more than a decade that targets the homeless, disabled and long-term unemployed. This new facility would offer a TUBUF PG UIF BSU UFBDIJOH LJUDIFO The greater San Antonio region has hundreds of unfilled positions today in the hospitality industry and this expansion would allow the Food Bank to quadruple the number of participants per class. Classes run in 18-week blocks and 100 percent of graduates looking for work post-graduation receive offers. Class Number 85 is currently underway.
PRODUCTION KITCHEN
The new facility wJMM be home to a TUBUF PG UIF BSU QSPEVDUJPO LJUDIFO capable of producing more than 50,000 meals a day, more than TJY times produced in
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edible San Antonio
THE WINTER ISSUE
UIF DVSSFOU LJUDIFO 0OF PG UIF 'PPE #BOL T QSJNBSZ HPBMT JT UP NFFU UIF near-constant demand for meals for children, but the kitchen in the existing facility limits the Food Bank’s ability to meet that demand. A larger production area is necessary to meet the goal of being the first large city in the United States to end childhood hunger. Hunger often interferes with a child’s ability to sleep, impedes focus and affects the physical wellbeing of a child, often leading to illnesses due to lack of food and proper nutrition. Ending childhood hunger will change the trajectory for future generations. The new kitchFn is being built to operate 2 UP 3 shifts per day, 7 days a week.
THE “GROCERANT� PHENOMENA 3FBEZ .FBMT o 2VJDL BOE /VUSJUJPVT 4PMVUJPOT
This development plan also includes a new “Grab-andGo� salad prep plant where the Food Bank would wash, store, prep/chop, and assemble healthy salads and Ready Meals (with as much of the produce as possible coming from its own farms). Time deprived low-income families need a solution that is both quick and nutritious. The Food Bank is prepared to meet this need by offering fresh prepared meals. The organization is the leader in Southwest Texas in promoting healthy eating, and the addition of a salad prep plant would afford a wider variety of healthy food options to those facing hunger.
