Second Harvest Food Bank received a $95,000 grant from US Foods to fund a new grocery pick-up system.
By the end of November, the food bank's clients in Clark, Champaign and Logan counties will be able to pick up pre-ordered products from the food bank out of 16 climate controlled lockers.
"Each locker can be set separately for either cool, heat or ambient temperature," said Andy Irick, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank. "There will be a kiosk and the customer, when they place their order online via email or text, they'll get a code for their locker in a locker location. And they can come at any time during the day and put in their code, open their locker and get their food."
The organization already offers a grocery pick-up option between 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at its 60,000-square-foot storage center.
“A large percentage of our neighbors that we serve are working and they may be working two jobs. So a lot of our neighbors that we serve, their time available to come and get food is limited and this will extend that time for them quite a bit.”
Irick said this expansion was made possible through the food bank's membership with Feeding America. Second Harvest Food Bank is one of 200 food banks in the country that partners with Feeding America.
"One of the things that helped us get this grant is we already have an order ahead program, which is much like a Kroger ClickList," Irick said. "The customer or our neighbor goes to our website, orders what they'd like, and then we have it available for them to come pick up."
Second Harvest Food Bank currently serves up to 85 patrons a week who order ahead for curbside delivery of their groceries.
Irick expects this number to increase with the new locker system.
“A large percentage of our neighbors that we serve are working, and they may be working two jobs," Irick said. "So a lot of our neighbors that we serve, their time available to come and get food is limited and this will extend that time for them quite a bit.”
Second Harvest also can build more lockers as needed.
“We can add another column of four any time we want and we'll see how it goes," Irick said. "And if we have some growth, then we'll do that to serve the need.”
Second Harvest Food Bank also works with 60 partner agencies locally.
Irick said the organization started its Agency Enabled Pickup program in September to pick up food from local retailers and distribute it back into the community.
"We have agencies in Bellefontaine who can pick that food at food up at the retailer, and it doesn't have to leave the community," he said. "It gets to the neighbors faster. So we've been we've started that process recently and it's going very well. Speeds up the time, the delivery, and they get fresher food, so it's been a big win."
