Community Food Bank Of Eastern Oklahoma Announced New Expansion

The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma is expanding.

The non-profit announced on Tuesday, the expansion will double its distribution capacity.

"This is really going to transform some of the things currently we're able to do," said Greg Raskin, Communications Manager for the food bank. "It's just going to give us a lot more efficiency. It's going to give us more cooler and freezer space so we'll have access to a lot more nutritious food."

Raskin says the pandemic further highlighted food insecurities across the state and in recent years the food bank has also grown exponentially providing almost 33 million pounds of food just last year. Raskin says their current facility is meant to distribute only 20 million pounds.

In addition to warehouse, office, and volunteer space, the food bank is also expanding the kitchen. Chief Culinary Officer Jeff Marlow says this will increase capacity from 11,000 to 40,000 meals per week and quadruple its size.

"It's going to be nice to be able to spread out and not have to be elbow to elbow," said Marlow.

The Food Bank has launched a campaign to raise $28 million dollars to fund the expansions but Raskin says they're almost there thanks in large part to generous donations locally, and a major national donation from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Construction should start in mid-November. They're hoping to have everything complete in 18 months.