Why Change?
We love the character of the old tobacco warehouses we’ve called home for 20+ years. They’ve served us well. But two dock doors barely accommodate the millions of pounds of food that move in out of our building every year. Low ceilings limit our storage, and the constant need for external refrigeration isn’t sustainable.
It’s time for a space designed for today and ready for tomorrow. So we’re building one. Ample warehousing will enable more opportunistic food rescue, better docking will help us quickly turn produce and protein, and more prep, sorting and packing space will make it easier for our 200+ caring daily volunteers (and staff) to do the good work of helping those in need.
Feed More will use this new facility to efficiently serve, at scale, our many neighbors wrestling with food insecurity across Central Virginia.
Here are just some of the ways our new space will help serve the community!
- 25% more capacity of shelf-stable food storage
- 5X freezer space
- 3X warehouse productivity and deliveries
Check out Feed More’s kitchen from so many years ago.
This humble space cooked up so much good – but as the needs of Central Virginia grew, so did our need for meal preparation at scale.
Steve and Sara Bayard, and the kindness of many other capital campaign supporters, made that happen. Their generosity brought our commercial grade Bayard Community Kitchen to life, and funded two additional renovations over the years. This kitchen, and the ones that came before, have served Central Virginians more than 10 million meals since our inception.
Thanks yet again to the Bayards, and generous neighbors like you, our new kitchen will increase meal production by even more – a whopping 50% more. That’s over 18,000 healthy meals A WEEK for the children, seniors, individuals and homebound neighbors we help.
A man on a mission.
Jeff Sagester, assistant superintendent with Hourigan, manages Feed More’s building construction site. He’s also a former Chesterfield County teacher of 30 years, and no stranger to how important healthy food is to the growth and development of our youngest neighbors. For Jeff, this building is more than just concrete and steel.
“Food is a staple that people – and especially kids – need. When I think about the number of meals Feed More makes and all the services provided, it’s one of the most important projects that I can ever imagine us doing.”
“To have a special project like this one with Feed More adds meaning to the work we do, it really gives you a reason to do your best. It’s a labor of love.”
Thank you, Jeff, for the boundless passion, leadership and expertise you’ve brought to this project!
