El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank Expansion Project

November 04, 2019
Staff

On Saturday, October 26, 2019, El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank (EPFHFB) along with community partners, Rebuilding Together El Paso and The Home Depot, teamed up to begin a much anticipated expansion project of the food bank’s facilities located at 9541 Plaza Circle. The expansion will provide the food bank with an additional 3,500 square feet which will be used for new administrative offices.

“The expansion will provide our team and staff with much needed office space to help us work in a comfortable area with the administrative resources available to help us in our mission to combat hunger,” said Susan Goodell, CEO of EPFHFB.

Rebuilding Together El Paso was instrumental with getting this project off the ground. They were able to obtain a grant from The Home Depot Foundation to pay for the materials needed for the construction. The local El Paso Home Depot provided volunteers to help execute the project. Forty volunteers will donated their time and expertise to the labor intensive project by texturing and painting walls, installing new flooring, refurbishing restrooms, as well as reinstalling air conditioners and water heaters.

“The role of Rebuilding Together is to identify the need of the community and arrange for the funds to finance the repairs. The mission of Rebuilding Together is ‘repairing homes, revitalizing communities, rebuilding lives.’ The food bank project falls under the category of revitalizing communities,” says Roger de Moor, Executive Director of Rebuilding Together El Paso.

The Food Bank is the distribution center for over 130 partner pantries across the borderland region and collaborative hub for hunger initiatives that assists in SNAP applications and nutrition education. EPFHFB also distributes healthy and nutritious food to over 120 client choice mobile pantries, which provide food to underserved communities throughout West Texas. They currently serve over 200,000 food insecure people with 1 in every 3 children and 1 in every 8 adults unsure of where their next meal will come from. So far this year, EPFHFB has distributed over 30 million pounds of food across El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson Counties.