FORT SMITH (KFSM) -- A new building will help the River Valley Regional Food Bank provide more food to those in need.
The food bank feeds about 53,000 people each month.
The new building on Zero St. is already being used to store some food, but employee offices need to be built before it opens in August.
The new facility will provide about six times the space as the old building.
“That’s going to enable us to do a whole lot more distribution of food,” Director of the River Valley Regional Food Bank Ted Clemons said. “We'll have more freezers more refrigeration space, so we'll be able to supply more nutritional food to the folks in our community,”
The new building will also allow more trucks to make deliveries.
"We’re anticipating going from about 7-to-8 million pounds a year to a 10-to-12 million-pound distribution per year,” Mark Whitmer with the Crawford Sebastian Community Development Council said.
He said they have about $75, 000 worth of construction left.
The food bank is one of hundreds of organizations taking part in Arkansas Gives day.
Each dollar you give to a participating non-profit will help them qualify for bonus money from the Arkansas community foundation.
The more the non-profit raises, the more bonus money the foundation sends their way.
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