Reading, PA – A major kitchen construction project is underway for Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank.
Located on the Goggle Works campus, the food bank will be able to expand its many services.
“What's going to happen here over the next eight months or so is we're going to put a commercial kitchen and a series of offices in this building and we're going to be able to create heat-and-eat meals for our Berks and Schuylkill customers. ” said Helping Harvest President Jay Worrall.
Worrall said about 55 per cent of food donations received come from the retail industry, which may not be packaged for home use.
“What we can do in this area is take those donations, break them down into microwaveable meals, freeze package them and distribute those meals primarily to seniors in the community. '' Worrall said.
This will enable food banks to continue to meet high demand and better serve those in need.
Worrall said the food bank plans to hire several new employees, but the organization plans to make some changes to the way the kitchen operates.
“We're going to operate by providing people with culinary skills training. Maybe we'll have people coming out of prison, people who are unemployed, people with developmental disabilities. It will be in those people's hands to prepare these meals while receiving training.'' It's training in artistic skills that they hope they can take into the job market,'' Worrall explained.
Helping Harvest hopes to be able to start making meals in the kitchen by the beginning of the new year.
“This will be a building that has been vacant for, we don't know, probably 70 years, but will now be able to provide a variety of important services to the residents of Berks County.” Worrall said.
