Food bank expansion construction begins
Work began Thursday on the expansion of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul food bank.
Bauer Excavating of Butler began site preparation on the parking lot at 157 Elm St. that will be the location of a 30-by-60-foot pole building.
“What we are doing now is putting up an addition to the existing building. Basically it will be a warehouse for nonperishable items,” said John Gibson, the society's vice president.
“It will allow us to unload trucks quicker and will get us a better price because we are buying more in bulk.
“We are also going to be putting in a large walk-in freezer because the need is just growing,” he said.
The building will connect to the east side of the present food bank and expand slightly into the parking lot.
Gibson said the expansion is needed because the demands on the food bank are increasing. He said 900 to 1,000 families “that comes up to 3,100 to 3,500 individuals” use the food bank each month.
In announcing the expansion plans last spring, Jim Owens, president of the Catholic lay society's Butler County district, said, “We have simply run out of room. There have been times when we have had to pass up food that was available simply because we had no room to store it.”
Dennis Slupe, the society's business manager, said building materials were to be delivered to the site Thursday. Gibson said the work could be done by the end of May, depending on the weather.
Contractors include Hey Electric, Kenneth McDonald Heating and Plumbing and concrete contractor Dave Waller.
The estimated $100,000 project will be paid for by grants and donations.
“This has been an 18-month project, and we'd like to thank all the generous people that have helped us bring the project along this far and the contractors,” said Gibson.
The society's food bank will continue to distribute food from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.
According to the society, among the food bank, its thrift store and donations from county churches, businesses, organizations and individuals, the society helped 13,000 people in the past fiscal year.
