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Increasing Our Capacity To Serve Through Expansion

Wednesday April 28, 2021

As we work toward our mission to feed the hungry in Baton Rouge and the surrounding parishes, it is important to note our continued growth. We must stay as productive and efficient as possible to ensure the best use of our donors’ dollars. This includes expansions, like the new cooler that we recently added to our warehouse. Additionally, to keep our volunteers and staff safe, we installed multiple air purifying units to decrease risk of exposure to COVID-19.

During the pandemic, we have received an increased amount of produce from government programs. To guarantee proper storage space, our original cooler and freezer combination unit was transformed into a full freezer with a cooler built adjacent to the unit.

“We have more than doubled our cooler space with this new expansion project,” said Mike Manning, President and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. “Being able to increase our capacity for cold product means that we can serve more clients across our 11 parishes with healthy vegetables, proteins and dairy that may be hard for them to acquire on their own.”

The ability to expand the cooler space was a direct result of having the foresight to lay pipes in a way that would allow for this kind of expansion when the original facility was transformed from the Fraenkel Furniture Warehouse into what is now your Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank facility.

Now, our cooler area can hold up to 354 pallets with space for a sorting area to ensure fruits and vegetables are sorted before they spoil. This is in comparison to the previous cooler area, which contained enough space for only 150 pallets.

You can learn more about our efforts to embrace innovation by calling (225) 359-9940.

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