Midwest Food Bank's Mike Hoffman says the food bank serves more than 200 food pantries weekly. (Photo by Eric Stock/WJBC)
By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – A local food bank has more than doubled its distribution in just three years.
It's a sign of Midwest Food Bank's growth, but a sign demand is rising too.
"We had more than $44 million worth of food go through our doors last year and we have over 14 million pounds of food," Operations Manager Mike Hoffman said. "I hear the numbers (the pantries) are serving continues to rise. The neat thing is as the need arises, the donations of food that have been coming into the food bank have risen."
Hoffman said the food bank in Bloomington provides food to more than 200 pantries across Illinois each week, and a third of them in McLean County.
"One of our biggest challenges is getting rid of as much food as we can," Hoffman said. "We are getting such an abundance of food being donated, and so we are trying to find new and innovative ways of distributing the food and trying to reach more food pantries."
One way Midwest has done that is through a new distribution center in the southeastern Illinois town of Fairfield to serve downstate pantries who can save the gas money. Hoffman said that opens up more room at the Bloomington warehouse for local pantries to take weekly collections.
Hoffman said Midwest has brought in more food from manufacturers who have donations built into their business plans. He said Midwest gets the food because they are willing to get it off the manufacturers' hands quickly so they can distribute it while its still good.
Midwest also opened a warehouse in Fort Myers, Fla. last fall.
Midwest had more than 2,600 volunteers donate 30,000 hours to their food distribution efforts last year.
Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.
