Downstate food bank to expand, move to new headquarters

EVANSVILLE (Inside INdiana Business) — Tri-State Food Bank Inc. has acquired a new facility to support its mission. The food bank says it has acquired an 80,000-square-foot warehouse and office space in Evansville, which will become its new headquarters. The nonprofit says the acquisition and renovation of the property will cost approximately $4 million.

If funding is received on schedule, the facility could be operational as early as April of 2020, according to the foodbank. Tri-State says the expansion could mean increasing the staff size, eventually adding up to 15 new positions as part of its capacity growth expansion plan.

“This new facility will provide the square footage, configuration, loading docks, and volunteer workspace necessary to fully meet the Tri-State’s needs,” said Roberts.

The operation has served families-in-need in southwest Indiana, southeast Illinois, and western Kentucky since 1982. The food bank says it provides food for nearly 112,000 people in the 33-county service area.

“Tri-State Food Bank currently distributes over 9 million pounds of food annually through its partners in the Tri-State area, but the need for food, especially for those most vulnerable – our children, seniors and rural families – is nearly twice that,” said Executive Director Glenn Roberts.

Tri-State intends to showcase its new space at its 3rd Annual Mac & Cheese Festival, one of their biggest fundraisers of the year.

“Holding our 3rd Annual Mac & Cheese Festival in this vast empty space will underscore the enormity of the hunger problem in our area,” said Roberts.