Food Bank of Western Massachusetts boosts capacity with move to Chicopee

CHICOPEE — Even when staff at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts secured a great deal on meat or fruit, they would only be able to accept half a trailer truck full of the item, no matter how much it was needed or wanted by clients.

But when their new headquarters on East Main Street officially opens on Tuesday, they can accept all the food they can secure because the new building — which measures more than 60,000 square feet — is double the size of the building that the food bank has been operating from since it was built in 1984 in Hatfield.

The original building had been added onto several times, but at 30,000 square feet, it did not have enough storage space. Staff members were crowded into offices or working at home, said Andrew Morehouse, executive director of the food bank.

“We have had to turn down hundreds of thousands of pounds of food because we didn’t have the storage,” Morehouse said.

At the same time, more people around the region are hungry as housing costs soar and food prices continue to increase.

The new warehouse section of the building is not only larger, it is also taller, so there are four tiers of storage instead of three. There is also more refrigeration and freezer space. That means the food bank can take in more fresh produce, dairy and work more with local farmers and meet its goals of providing healthier and more culturally appropriate food, he said.

The office area is also larger, so most of the 60 employees who have mainly been working at home because of a space crunch will be returning to in-person work, at a minimum, under a hybrid schedule, Morehouse said.

Construction on the new building, located in the Chicopee River Business Park, began in the spring of 2022.

“It was under budget and on schedule,” Morehouse said, thanking the general contractor C.E. Floyd, which has a location in Bedford and another in Connecticut, for its work.

The company was the low bidder for the project. Although it was not a union contractor, Morehouse made certain workers were paid the prevailing wage.

The project was funded with a combination of different sources, including $5 million in federal pandemic relief funds, $6 million in new market tax credits and a $3 million earmark secured with the help of U.S. senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren. The other half of the money came from private donations from businesses, grants from charitable foundations, other fundraising, and the sale of the Hatfield building, Morehouse said.

Myers Produce, a women-owned fruit-and-vegetable distribution business, recently purchased the Hatfield warehouse and plans to move in October.

The food bank’s move, which took place over the past week, took some planning since the nonprofit provides food to 172 pantry and meal sites and operates multiple direct-distribution sites, including 26 mobile food banks and about 60 brown-bag programs at senior citizen centers, he said.

Because his staff knew they needed a week to move more than 2 million pounds of food, office equipment and everything else needed to operate the food bank, Morehouse said they started warning everyone who receives food about a week-long closure ahead of the transition.

“We made a point to let members know months in advance and encouraged them to stockpile extra food,” he said.

The new building will make the operations more efficient and allow for more flexibility. Morehouse said he is happy to be relocating to Hampden County where the largest number of food pantries are. For those in Hampshire County, Morehouse is working with Myers Produce to share temporary storage space to lessen the distance they have to travel.

Since it is located about half a mile from the entrance to Interstate 291 and closer to large population centers with the greatest poverty levels, including Springfield, Chicopee and Holyoke, it will save gas money and time for the many pantries and meal centers that pick up food.

Nearly half the food the food bank receives and distributes comes from Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program, which is funded with $35 million from the state budget. The program provides food to four different food banks across the state.

The building also comes with nine loading docks, which is more than double the number that the food bank has now, which will also increase efficiency because drivers will no longer have to wait for a spot so they can pick up or deliver food, Morehouse said.

The building is also equipped with heat pumps and the most energy-efficient systems possible. In addition, the food bank has received a grant to explore putting solar panels on the roof and above the parking lot to reduce the cost of energy, Morehouse said.

When initially proposed, neighbors loudly protested the food bank’s plans to move into the business park, citing the additional truck traffic, noise and the fact that it does not pay taxes.

Morehouse said he is committed to being a good neighbor. The final step of the project is finishing the landscaping, which calls for the loading docks to be completely screened with a fence and a row of arborvitaes.

In addition, Morehouse said the food bank will return to the Planning Board this month to ask to modify the landscaping plan so it can add more trees along Carew Street. After doing the initial plantings, officials agreed they had room to create a thicker buffer for the homes across the street.