The Food Bank of the Hudson Valley’s new distribution center in Orange County, situated at 580 State Route 416 in Montgomery, has expanded the organization’s services to address food insecurity in the Hudson Valley.
Serving 170,000 people per month across Orange, Dutchess, Sullivan, Ulster, Rockland and Putnam counties, the 50,000-square-foot facility doubles the food bank’s previous space at Croton-on-Hudson, meeting a growing demand for food assistance in the region.
The food bank takes into account food insecurity rates per county, and even by neighborhood, and talk to partnering agencies to better serve local communities, while working to identify partners looking to innovate, according to its CEO, Tom Nardacci.
“That’ll really help make an impact, especially in communities of high need,” he said.
The food is distributed to more than 400 partner agencies — about 200 are food pantries, and the others are shelters, soup kitchens, school programs and senior programs — in the Hudson Valley.
Kathy Kreiter, director of the Sullivan County Federation for the Homeless, said the new distribution center and location will help service the homeless population in her county.
“To me, Montgomery is right over the hill so even if we don’t wind up getting our deliveries from there, ’shop the dock’ is something we’re going to take advantage of,” she said.
With the central Montgomery location, food transportation using the New York State Thruway, I-84, and state Route 17, is much more accessible.
Food costs are high, Nadarcci said, and the food assistance need is higher than ever. “A lot of factors are driving people to the charitable food system,” he said.
Tanya Thomas from the Beacon Light Tabernacle Seventh Adventist Church food bank in Wappingers Falls said they serve about 90 to 100 families every week, and they anticipate more, “because we have a lot of new people that showed up just last week.”
Thomas was among the first of several volunteer organizations from the Hudson Valley to pick up food from the new facility.
‘Huge’ operational changes with the increased space
The Food Bank has annually distributed more than 20 million pounds of food, but almost 12 million used to be shipped from its distribution center in Albany. The new center eliminates that gap, and shipments of food via tractor trailers can be accommodated there. “That’s a huge operational change for us,” Nardacci said.
Diana Velasquez, of RECAP in Middletown, said the facility is a great site for them, with a variety of foods available.
“It’s easy getting in and out when we pick up food, and it will really help the community,” Velasquez said.
With four times the amount of storage for dry, cold and frozen foods, all of the food sent out in the Hudson Valley area will come directly from the Montgomery center.
The increased space will also be used to source more and build “more relationships,” Nardacci said, with local growers and producers through the Nourish New York program, as well as engaging in direct distribution and programming, such as a pop-up pantry at a senior living facility.
“We can go once a month, bring a van, a couple of pallets of food and set up a pop-up food pantry at a senior housing site,” he said. “We want to do more of that.”
Team growth and upscaling operations, fundraising
With the growth in facility size, there has also been an increase of staff, with 30 new employees to help with operations.
“We’re going from a very small facility to a very large facility, so our team is growing into it,” Nadarcci said.
The largest challenge moving forward is scaling up. Nardacci said they’ve been planning and prepping, but it’ll be paramount to focus on the increased operational costs and the fundraising necessary, as a non-profit organization, to sustain and continue to grow the distribution center.
“We want people to be aware because we need people to support us,” he said.
Diane Serratore, executive director of People to People in Rockland County, said the produce and non-perishables available at the facility are going to make a big difference for the community. “I don’t know where we would get two million meals, or 70% of our food, without the Food Bank.”
Food Bank of the Hudson Valley: How to help
“We have a dedicated staff, but we’re powered by thousands and thousands of volunteers,” Nadarcci said. “We need 10,000 to 15,000 volunteers a year to help us operate this facility in Montgomery.”
Nardacci said combating food insecurity will also take collaboration from local stakeholders on every level, including grassroots efforts, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, larger organizations like the food bank, corporations, county governments and state-elected officials.
“We couldn’t do what we do without partnership,” he said.
Every dollar raised provides four meals, according to the Food Bank.
Learn more about their direct services programs — such as senior delivery, school backpacks, school pantries, “Food as Medicine,” mobile “pop-up” pantries, drive-thru pantries, farm stand programs and kids summer feed programs — by visiting regionalfoodbank.net.
“All of us working together in our region, that’s really what we need to close the meal gap,” Nardacci said. “No one should be hungry.”
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