Midwest Food Bank is expanding its Morton facility as part of boosting its capacity for disaster relief. Earlier this month, the Central Illinois-based nonprofit broke ground on a year-long expansion and renovation of the site.
Midwest Food Bank has locations across the U.S. and in Haiti and East Africa. The primary mission of those facilities is facilitating what it calls hunger relief — that is, helping local agencies supply food to people in need in those areas.
The executive director of Midwest Food Bank’s Morton Division, John Cirilli, said Morton performs that function as well, but also has an additional mission.
“Morton is our national disaster relief headquarters for Midwest Food Bank, and so we really serve globally, nationally,” Cirilli said. “We are sending products from this warehouse in Morton across the country and across the globe.”
Recently, Cirilli said, the facility sent about 15 truckloads of supplies, food boxes, water, and hygiene kits to Florida after Hurricane Isaias hit.
Cirilli said the expansion that has gotten underway will add to the facility’s warehouse and renovate volunteer and office spaces.
“We're going to be adding about 20,000 square feet of warehouse, three new dock doors, parking for volunteers, and then spaces internally for volunteers and some new office spaces will encompass the whole project,” Cirilli said.
Cirilli said the expansion will cost about $6 million, with funding coming from donations from local churches, businesses and individuals. He said that about $4 million has already been raised and fundraising will continue during the project.
The warehouse expansion is expected to be completed next summer, and the other renovations will be done next fall. Cirilli said that the nonprofit’s leadership team will eventually all move into the renovated office spaces.
The renovation will also include expanded volunteer spaces. Cirilli said the Morton location alone has about 3,500 individual volunteers that help the nonprofit deliver on its mission.
“It could be just coming in and packing food boxes. I have full-time warehouse volunteers. They show up every day. They move product with forklifts, load trucks. I have accounting volunteers to help me with my bookkeeping,” Cirilli said. “Really, this mission cannot be served without the enormous amount of volunteers coming from Central Illinois.”
Cirilli said anyone interested in helping should check the Midwest Food Bank website, call or just stop in.
Midwest Food Bank is a faith-based charity, but Cirilli said anyone is welcome to volunteer or receive assistance.
“What we believe we're doing is bringing people in with all backgrounds to pack this material in the name of Christ and to send those to people, showing hope and salvation through the stuff that we're doing.”
