A planned food warehouse in downtown Owensboro is expected to add more than 215,000 meal equivalents per month to local food distribution capacity, providing the refrigerated, frozen, and dry storage needed to get more food to families across the region.
Green River Community Food Warehouse has raised $4.2 million to purchase and renovate the facility and cover its first three years of operating costs. With that funding secured, the nonprofit says additional donations will go directly toward acquiring food for local pantries and kitchens.
The total exceeds the organization’s $4.1 million campaign goal, according to Executive Director Steve Innes.
“Reaching this goal was never about one gift or one organization,” Innes said. “City, county, and state government, our foundations, local businesses, and many individual donors all decided this community should have a better way to get food to the people who need it. We’re grateful to every one of them.”
The warehouse will occupy the Clark Distributing Company building at 1222 East 4th Street. Clark Distributing announced earlier this month that it plans to build a new facility at MidAmerica Airpark. The food warehouse will move in after Clark relocates.
Roughly 17,000 Daviess County residents are food insecure, according to the Food Security Council of Owensboro/Daviess County, a community group convened by Innes. Nearly 70 food pantries and soup kitchens already provide about 165,000 meals each month, according to the council.
“This community isn’t short on effort,” Innes said. “It’s short on coordination and cold storage. Truckloads of donated food pass Owensboro by because there’s nowhere to keep it. That’s the gap this facility closes.”
Public funding for the project includes $500,000 each from the City of Owensboro, Daviess County Fiscal Court, and the Commonwealth of Kentucky through House Bill 900.
Foundation, business, and community supporters include the Hager Educational Foundation, Public Life Foundation of Owensboro, Marilyn & William Young Foundation, Owensboro Health, Greenwell Foundation, Yeager Foundation, Impact 100, Green River Area Community Foundation, First Christian Church, Atmos Energy, Boardwalk Pipeline, Southern Star Gas Pipeline, Specialty Foods, and Glenmore Gifts.
The warehouse’s board of directors committed $500,000, and individual donors have contributed more than $425,000.
The organization said money raised above its campaign goal, along with future gifts, will go directly toward acquiring food for its distribution partners, including pantries, soup kitchens, churches, and schools.
Work has already begun ahead of the facility’s opening. The nonprofit has acquired donated and purchased food, stored frozen products out of state until local cold storage becomes available, and made its first distributions to partner organizations.
“People hear ‘goal met’ and think we’re done,” Innes said. “We’re just getting started. Every dollar given now becomes food on a table in Daviess County.”
The warehouse works with about 25 distribution partners and is reaching out to more of the nearly 70 pantries and meal sites identified by the Food Security Council across the county. Partners distribute food directly and share data to help measure the organization’s impact.
Green River Community Food Warehouse is a nonprofit working to increase access to fresh, nutritious food across Daviess, McLean, and Ohio counties by supplying food pantries and kitchens.
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