Orlando, Fla. — Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida celebrated the grand opening of its new ‘Mercy Kitchen’ distribution facility on Tuesday.
The 20,000 square-foot warehouse will boost Second Harvest’s meal output from 7,200 to 23,000 meals per day to be delivered at various mobile pantries.
Chief Development Officer Greg Higgerson said the expansion comes as food insecurity in Central Florida continues its year-long streak during the pandemic.
“We knew early on last March that this was going to be huge deal when we saw that our food finder tool on our website had spiked from about 30 searches a day to more than a thousand per day.”
That number has dropped to about 300 searches per day, Higgerson said.
SEE A VIDEO OF MERCY KITCHEN BELOW
Here’s a tour of @feedhopenow’s new Mercy Kitchen. They outgrew their Orlando warehouse nearby and today celebrated their expanded (20K sqft) facility where they’ll be able to nearly triple their meal output. 🍎 @WDBONews pic.twitter.com/6eLDls8zJ6
— Katrina Scales (@kscalesWDBO) March 31, 2021
Orange County contributed $652,000 in federal CARES Act money to Second Harvest to make the Mercy Kitchen expansion possible.
Approximately $8M in CARES Act funding was allocated to Second Harvest in 2020.
To learn how to volunteer at the food bank, click here.
To read more about Mercy Kitchen, click here.
Cox Media Group
