The FISH Food Pantry has found a larger, and much-needed new space, and by partnering with the Galesburg Community Foundation, the River Bend Food Bank in Davenport will create a regional food hub in Galesburg. The Community Foundation purchased the former Rheinschmidt’s Carpet Center building last year, and the need for food has been highlighted throughout the pandemic. “River Bend Food Bank had talked about what their mission could gain if they could have a regional branch located somewhere,” Galesburg Community Foundation CEO Josh Gibb said. “You know, what happened last year with the response to COVID really showed the need for food. The community foundation purchased the property and has every intention of fully investing in it and renovating it to allow the food bank to operate out of there (and) become this hub of really distributing food to all the food pantries in the region. Our involvement has really been the prompt to allow these two organizations to better fulfill their missions.”
“We’ve been very space-limited for the last couple of years,” said Diane Copeland President of FISH Food Pantry. “It seems like we get more and more – we’ve had to turn down donations even just because we have no space to put them.” FISH Food Pantry currently operates out of the Hawthorne Center. “We’ve only got about 1,400 square feet right now. And I’m hearing that the freezer in this new facility is going to be about two or three times that.”
“We deliver roughly once per month,” said President and CEO of River Bend Food Bank, Mike Miller. “But the rest of the time, those folks are driving to us to get food. And there are 50 food pantries that are closer to Galesburg than they are to us. And this is really going to help them a lot.”
Work has yet to begin on the building, but the Galesburg Community Foundation along with FISH and River Bend are meeting with architects this week on creating plans for the space. For now, FISH will continue to operate out of the old location until work gets completed on the new regional hub.
