Cultivate Food Rescue opens cold storage facility
SOUTH BEND — Cultivate Food Rescue, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating hunger and food waste, celebrated the opening of its 22,000-square-foot cold storage facility with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday.
The state-of-the-art facility will expand the organization’s operational base in South Bend and rescue over $47 million of nutritious meals that would otherwise go to waste, organizers said.
“Today, we celebrate not just a facility but a future where food insecurity is a thing of the past for our neighbors in St. Joseph, Elkhart and Marshall counties,” Executive Director Jim Conklin said. “Thanks to the collective efforts of our pantry and school partners, supporters and volunteers, our community has a sustainable solution to eliminating hunger and food waste.”
The addition of the cold storage facility will allow Cultivate to rescue 20 million pounds of perishable food annually, 10 times more that the organization currently rescues.
The improved efficiency of the new facility on Cultivate’s operations will significantly impact vulnerable children and adults living in St. Joseph, Elkhart and Marshall counties, he said, broadening the nonprofit’s service to over 200 regional food pantries and social service agencies.
In addition, the expansion can provide nearly two meals per day to every food-insecure child and offer a vital daily meal to 62 percent of vulnerable adults and children living in poverty in the organization’s three-county region.
More information: CultivateFoodRescue.com.
