JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In our viewing area, 1 in 8 adults and 1 in 5 children experience some level of food insecurity – more than 272,000 people, according to Feeding Northeast Florida.
To meet the need, the organization will open the area’s largest food bank on Thursday morning.
RELATED: ‘We want to be here to serve’: Feeding Northeast Florida expands to larger facility
The new building on Old Kings Road will have the capacity to serve 94,000 meals each day, enabling the food bank to feed thousands more people.
The new campus is located where the Kinco Windows factory once stood.
Feeding Northeast Florida said the new facility will be 110,000 square feet and will provide significantly more storage for refrigerated and frozen foods.
The food bank says this will help alleviate food insecurity and ensure food security.
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It will also allow the food bank to support important programs such as mobile pantries, curbside markets and food drives.
The new campus will be able to host training sessions for volunteers and the 325 organizations the center works with.
Feeding Northeast Florida added four more counties over the last year and now serves 12 counties.
Coverage areas include Duval, Clay, Nassau, St. Johns, Flagler, Baker, Bradford and Putnam counties.
The company has expanded its reach to Alachua, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties over the last year.
Map of coverage area for the new Feeding Northeast Florida facility (WJXT)
In 2023, Feeding Northeast Florida served more than 34.6 million meals.
Another big change with the new facility is that more people can now work in the same room during one shift.
Feeding Northeast Florida says it can now accommodate about 200 volunteers at a time, compared to just 25 at the old warehouse.
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