The leader of Salem’s Marion Polk Food Share has a case of “freezer envy.”
Rick Gaupo, executive director of the food bank, said they sometimes have to turn food away because their 1,850 square foot freezer is full. Accepting a new donation means a miniature game of Tetris, rotating crates around so the oldest food remains in front.
Grocery stores usually can’t hold on to donations for a few days or weeks until the food share has space.
“We need to be recipients of food when it is available,” said Gaupo. “They’re saying no, it’s today or not.”
Gaupo recently visited a food bank in Colorado that serves about the same population as his organization, but had a bigger freezer with roll-up doors to quickly process donations.
“It made a difference in efficiency. It made a difference in how much food they can take,” he said.
Since moving into its current warehouse in 2004, the Food Share has doubled the amount of food it distributes, with over 9 million pounds last year.
Salem’s regional food bank now provides food for 70 pantries around the region and feeds about 18,000 families per month.
Leaders say they’ve outgrown the space they’re in and need a new, larger warehouse that will let them continue growing over the coming decades. It would have a bigger freezer, more cooler space and a kitchen to prepare Meals on Wheels food on site.
A bipartisan group of Salem-area legislators are backing a bill that would give the Food Share $6 million from Oregon taxpayers to purchase and renovate a new warehouse space.
Food Share leaders estimated the project would cost $24 million in total, with half that money coming from donors, about $4 million from the sale of their current building, and $2 million in federal money.
Legislators are crafting a two-year state budget during this year’s session and typically allocate millions of taxpayer dollars to projects around the state as part of their work. Other large Salem projects, including the new YMCA and Hope Plaza, an affordable housing development for domestic violence survivors, have received state help in recent years. Such allocations are typically worked out during the final days of the legislative session in June.
Gaupo said food share leaders were discussing the need for a new building before the Covid pandemic, but instead shifted to providing immediate food aid during the pandemic.
During the height of the pandemic, lawmakers expanded social safety net programs, including a tax credit for low-income families with children.
Families don’t have that support anymore, and with rapid inflation in recent years demand for food assistance is higher than ever.
“It’s not every single month, but so many months we’re seeing record numbers,” said Julie Hambuchen, the Food Share’s vice president of donor relations.
The composition of the food they give out has also changed. When they moved to their current location at 1660 Salem Industrial Dr. N.E., most of their food was non-perishable and stacked on large warehouse shelves. Now, over half of what they distribute is product, meat, dairy and other items that need refrigeration.
They want to move from their current 30,000 square foot warehouse to a new facility that’s 60,000 to 100,000 square feet. Hambuchen said they have a building in mind and are currently in talks with the owner about a possible purchase. If that works out, they could begin work on renovations in 2026, but that’s contingent on receiving state money.
The state funding effort has bipartisan support, with state Sens. Deb Patterson, a Democrat, and Kim Thatcher, a Republican, among the chief sponsors. State Reps. Tom Andersen, Anna Scharf and Kevin Mannix are also chief sponsors.
A new warehouse would also steamline Meals on Wheels operations. Right now, meals for delivery to 630 homebound seniors are split, with cold portions prepped at the warehouse and hot meals cooked at the city of Salem’s Center 50+.
The kitchen there was designed to make community meals for programs at the Center.
“It was never made to serve 1,000 meals a day,” Gaupo said.
And the city’s ongoing budget woes mean Center 50+ could close or sharply reduce hours. A bigger space would let the Food Share prepare meals in house.
Gaupo said they want their new building to last for decades.
“We see this as the moment in time to go all in,” he said. “This is a signature campaign that’s going to last a generation.”
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
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