Imperial Valley Food Bank close to campaign financing goal

The Imperial Valley Food Bank is pushing to raise enough funds in the next couple of months to fund its capital campaign project to build a bigger facility.

Last year, after securing the first half of commitments, the IVFB reached the public phase of its campaign and set an ambitious goal of securing all the funding by the end of 2017. Although it was unable to reach that milestone, the IVFB still managed to secure a good portion of the funds it needs. Currently, the food bank has 77 percent of its total funding required as it pushes forward to try to finalize the funding by May.

The goal for the food bank is to raise a total of $6 million to pay for the purchase of land and the construction of a building, which will be located at the Imperial Business Park near the intersection of Aten and La Brucherie roads.

“We’re still doing very well for such a short campaign. We were at 53 percent in February when the campaign went public,” said IVFB Executive Director Sara Griffen. “What we have been able to get done this past year has been pretty incredible.”

She also noted the IVFB is still actively sending requests out to potential contributors and are awaiting responses from a few grant applications.

In addition to such efforts, the IVFB is also preparing to launch a community gift initiative during February and March in which it will reach out to the general public to get smaller donations. Construction of the new facility is expected to take between six to eight months to complete.

As part of its increasing need, the IVFB proposed a 28,000 square foot building, which is expected to increase the food bank’s warehouse, refrigerator and freezer capacities to store more fresh and healthy foods. It will have new loading docks to make the shipping and receiving of food easier and will have easy access to public transportation.

The IVFB is the central distribution point of food in the Valley. It works with more than 100 agencies, schools and churches throughout Imperial County to help residents who are enduring hunger and food insecurity.

In 2016, the food bank distributed more than 4 million pounds of food. The IVFB currently helps serve more than 20,000 residents in need, a number that has grown threefold in the last decade.

The food it distributes reaches local schools as part of the weekend backpack program, and it helps other organizations such as Catholic Charities and Neighborhood House provide prepared meals for families.

For more information on donating to the capital campaign, call Griffen at 760370-0966.