A western Iowa food bank is using a grant from a major company to help chill its donations. Siouxland Food Bank director Karen Kenter-Blumberg says the 35-thousand dollar grant from the Phillip Morris company will allow them to build a cooler.
They also plan to add a scissors lift to their dock to help in unloading and loading food. Kenter-Blumberg says the cooler will allow the food bank to give out more fresh food.
They had to turn away some fresh produce this summer as they didn’t have a proper place to store it. She says it’s important to use all the resources available as she expects donation to fall off in light of the September 11th terrorist attacks.
People are sending donations out east and that leaves less money for them to donate to local agencies. Kenter-Blumberg says this problem is not confined to Iowa.
She’s talked with other food banks across the country that’ve found donations down and have had to layoff workers. The Food Bank of Siouxland serves 190 agencies in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.