Project HOPE Food Bank has received "an amazing gift" from the Oaklawn Foundation, which presented the nonprofit with a $42,000 grant for the installation of a new freezer, Becky Chote, the food bank's assistant director, said Thursday.
"This was definitely a wish list item," Chote told The Sentinel-Record shortly before a visit to the food bank, located at 915 Gaines St., by several foundation members, noting the freezer will be used to aid the pantries, school backpacks, feeding programs and homeless shelters served through the food bank.
"It's a big deal," Ted Thompson, the food bank's director, said.
"Number one, it allows us not to have to hand load the supplies and I can order more. It will hold more," Thompson said, noting that getting a new, bigger freezer was Chote's idea and "I told her to go ahead and just tried to stay out of her way."
After a tour of the Food Bank, Dennis Smith, Oaklawn Foundation treasurer, said, "The Oaklawn Foundation Board believes the grants to Project HOPE Food Bank are one of the best uses of our funds for enhancing the quality of life for our Garland County residents."
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It was "an honor" to receive the Oaklawn Foundation grant, Thompson said in a news release. "This freezer will be utilized to help seniors, families and children that reside in our community. During this pandemic, the food bank has seen an uptick in the number of people struggling with food insecurity."
The new freezer replaces the food bank's previous freezer that was located outside and required volunteers to "withstand the elements" while handloading the freezer one case at a time. The capacity was also very limited on the older unit, the release said.
"Now we can just run the pallets right up in there," Chote told the newspaper. "Before, we would just have to hand them off to each other and to 80-year-olds, it's kind of a challenge," she said of some of their volunteers.
"The new freezer has a pallet door that will allow volunteers to unload the meat from the semi-trucks directly into the freezer. The new freezer will hold over six pallets of meats including ground beef, turkey and chicken. This is an opportune time to receive this gift, as we see meat prices rising substantially. Each of our partner agencies will benefit from a major saving, allowing them to stretch their budgets and serve more people," the release said.
"This is an amazing gift," Chote said. "I don't know if you've priced ground beef lately, but by buying in pallet loads and big boxes, we can get it for half the price or better. Prices are going up astronomically especially on proteins. This saves the community and all the people who have struggled through the pandemic. It will make a big impact for years to come as we will be able to get the best pricing."
Funding is "always a challenge," she said. "Being able to withstand the growth we're going through."
She said the demand was less during the summer when the government was "saturating the community with USDA commodities, but now the money has been cut and all of the commodities have been cut so we're having to work harder."
She said seniors and children are "the hardest hit" and the "major challenge," noting, "It's all about impacting the health and well-being of the people in our community. The healthier our community is, the better off our financial well-being is as a community."
Chote said the new freezer was installed by Knox AC & Heating Inc., which "brought it in in panels and set it up and put the compressor on the roof. The biggest challenge was our building had a bad roof so we had to redo the roof first and during the pandemic everything was a bigger challenge than it would be normally, so the logistics and all took us longer than what we projected."
She said Charlie Knox and his crew were "the most amazing guys" and have helped the nonprofit in the past.
According to the release, the Oaklawn Foundation uses the money generated from Oaklawn's gaming center to fund programs and scholarships to benefit Garland County students and seniors. The foundation "tries to be responsive to the community while focusing our grants on alignment with our mission, vision, values and areas of concentration. In pursuing its goals, the Oaklawn Foundation is committed to the support of nonprofit organizations and institutions that demonstrate sound financial management, efficient operation, program integrity and an entrepreneurial spirit."
Project HOPE Food Bank is funded through community support, the release said. "Our facility is donated, and our warehouse staff are volunteers."