NeighborImpact is breaking ground on a new, $5.5 million food warehouse in Redmond to help combat growing rates of food insecurity in Central Oregon.

The Redmond-based service organization acts as the regional partner of the Oregon Food Bank, providing food to more than 50 partners throughout the region. The new warehouse, located on SW First Street, will serve as the central hub for food pantries throughout Central Oregon.

Crews plan to break ground on the project Friday and expect construction to be finished in June 2024. Once finished, the building will be more than triple the size of the current warehouse — going from from 3,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet. The expansion will help area food pantries keep up with skyrocketing demand.

“For the last couple of years now we’ve really been at capacity,” said Jordan Reeher, program coordinator for NeighborImpact. “We’ve completely outgrown the space.”

The warehouse received funds from a wide mix of sources, including American Rescue Plan Act dollars from Deschutes County, private foundations and community donations. NeighborImpact said it is still about $235,000 shy of the $5.5 million projected budget, but Rotary clubs throughout the region are hoping to raise funds to help narrow that goal.

According to Reeher, in 2019 NeighborImpact fed approximately 27,000 people a month in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties. Reeher said the organization expects the number of clients to more than triple — to nearly 90,000 people per month — in the next few years.

“Since those numbers have expanded so quickly we really don’t have the capacity to move (things) through our warehouse,” Reeher said. “We just don’t have the warehouse capacity to bring on the food that we want to.”

In addition to dry storage, the new warehouse will also have increased space for refrigerated and frozen items. That will allow NeighborImpact to bring in more fresh produce, which already makes up more than half of the product they dish out to food banks in the region.

Reeher said most people think food banks serve canned or boxed foods, but NeighborImpact tries to provide healthy foods and produce and will be able to offer more of that once the new warehouse is constructed.

Gordon Foster, co-leader of the Redmond Adventist Church’s food pantry, said it has plenty of dry goods but sometimes runs low on more perishable items like potatoes, onions or green vegetables. The expansion, Foster said, will make the church’s food pantry better.Regional benefit

The new warehouse, Reeher said, will help NeighborImpact expand its programs and services to keep up with demand from a rapidly expanding population in a region covering nearly 8,000 square miles.

When the pandemic hit, Reeher said the agency they saw an increase in services and expected it would eventually dip back down. That has yet to happen.

“This past month was the busiest month we’ve ever seen,” Reeher said. “Our numbers have only continued to rise more and more.”

According to Luci Fuller, social services director at St. Vincent De Paul Redmond, the number of people accessing its food bank has increased recently by about 200 to 300 people every month.

St. Vincent De Paul’s food bank currently operates from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Once the new warehouse is built, Fuller said the food bank will have more food available, and Fuller hopes it will allow the organization to open its pantry on Friday afternoons.

The one extra day would allow the food bank to serve another 40 households — or roughly 160 people — per week.

“The expansion is going to be really beneficial for our program,” Fuller said. “It’s going to have a really big impact on us.”

In December, Fuller said that St. Vincent de Paul gave out meals to 1,264 people, 514 of whom were experiencing homelessness.

“That number is trending up,” Fuller said.

Last month, 82 new individuals received food from its food pantries, serving 53 veterans and 476 children, 191 of whom were experiencing homelessness.

Foster, of the Redmond Adventist Church, said the food bank sees roughly 215 to 250 people per week. In the past, he said it mostly served those struggling with homelessness, but have increasingly served middle-class families over the last six to eight months.

“Inflation is getting them,” he said. “People have lost their jobs. It’s hitting them hard.”

The majority of users of NeighborImpact are employed as well, and Reeher said that they’re also seeing an increase in middle-class families. Food is often the first thing folks cut back on when rent and mortgages eat up about half the income of most Central Oregon families.

Tambry Scunziano helps run Smith Rock Community Church’s food pantry from 9 a.m. until noon each Tuesday. She said it averaged around 20 families a week, a number that recently increased to about 30.

Scunziano said it mostly serves people on fixed incomes — whether that’s people older than 60, single parents or those experiencing homelessness. She said all will benefit from a larger, more efficient food hub.

“(NeighborImpact) expanding has a direct impact on us because that means we can give people more variety of stuff,” Scunziano said.

Still, its hard to keep up with rising demand.

Fuller said most of the funding for St. Vincent De Paul’s social services programs, like the food pantry, comes from its thrift store. She noted the agency is not receiving as many community donations as in the past.

Reeher said NeighborImpact won’t be able to expand its services until the warehouse is built 18 months from now, but once finished the new warehouse will be felt across all corners of Central Oregon.

Foster said the impact of the expansion is simple.

“Right now it’s good,” he said. “It’s going to be better.”