The Regional Food Bank Hudson Valley opens their bay doors to volunteers and partner agencies for the first time at its new 50,000-square-foot distribution center in the Town of Montgomery, Orange County. The state-of-the-art facility will expand the organization’s capacity for food storage and distribution to better meet the growing demand for food assistance in the Hudson Valley and beyond.
This new distribution center will allow the Regional Food Bank to better serve our neighbors in need in the Hudson Valley, and this investment will have profound impacts throughout the region’s 23-County service area. In 2023, the Food Bank distributed 48 million pounds of food, enough for 40 million meals.
“This marks a tremendous milestone in our ultimate goal of serving more of our neighbors in need in the Hudson Valley and beyond,” said Tom Nardacci, CEO Regional Food Bank. “With this facility online, it frees up transportation and logistics opportunities for us to better serve the Capital Region and North Country. The need in our communities continues to grow and we are committed to fair and equitable food distribution, this new space will help us meet this need and our goals.”
Previously, due to transportation limitations, nearly half of the 21 million pounds of food distributed in the Hudson Valley was sent to the Albany County distribution center before heading south. Now, that food will be able to be warehoused, stored and distributed right in the Hudson Valley, in the new Orange County facility. The new location in Montgomery, allows for easy access for transportation to the New York State Thruway, I-84 and NYS Route 17.
The new distribution center will provide the Regional Food Bank with four times more storage for dry, cold and frozen foods and to purchase more food from local growers and producers through the Nourish New York program to distribute to more than 400 partnering agencies in the Hudson Valley and to local families. Direct access to highways will allow for more frequent distribution and easier access for partnering agencies to pick up food which is then delivered at the community level.
“This facility has been a dream for the Regional Food Bank for years,” said Felicia Kalan, Executive Vice President, Hudson Valley. “Being part of this team to make it a reality has been a truly humbling experience, and one that would not have been possible without the support of so many businesses, foundations, families and individuals in the Hudson Valley.”
The Regional Food Bank expects to distribute four million more pounds of food, a 20 percent increase, with the new facility and has more than doubled their Hudson Valley workforce.
“This project has been years in the making, tens of thousands of volunteer hours have been invested, and millions of dollars have been raised and spent, with a common goal of helping our neighbors in need. This new distribution center will help us reach more individuals and families more efficiently, and at a lower cost,” added Nardacci.