Warehouses4Good is teaming with God’s Pantry Food Bank (GPFB) to construct a 20,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Hazard County, Kentucky. GPFB currently serves 50 counties in Central and Eastern Kentucky, supporting more than 450 member food pantries and meal programs. Their total food distribution of 41.8 million pounds in 2021 included 13 million pounds of fresh produce.
With team partners Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH) and Kentucky Educational Development Corporation (KEDC), GPFB is coordinating efforts to increase farm to institution distribution in southeast Kentucky, anchored by the food warehouse GPFB is developing in Hazard. GPFB’s planned facility will serve as a satellite distribution facility to improve food supply to member pantries in the distressed seven-county area.
This facility will also provide supply chain infrastructure supporting farm-to-institution initiatives currently underway at ARH and KEDC. Anchoring efforts to supply more fresh fruits, vegetables, and other foods from local and regional sources, this facility will improve nutrition for patients, students, employees, and the community at large. GPFB’s food warehouse, with dry and cold storage, will fill an important gap in the regional food system, currently served by facilities located up to 230 miles away.
Warehouses4Good is proud to partner with these organization to help identify opportunities for local foods, align initiatives of institutions to concentrate local buying power, and build a sustainable warehouse to feed a region devasted by food insecurity.
For more information on the food security in the region, visit: Hunger Data – Feeding Kentucky (feedingky.org)