The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
SHARING MORE
Second Harvest gets new large capacity delivery truck
Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio unveiled its new large capacity semi-truck for its inaugural delivery Jan. 11 at Beyond the Walls Church, 101 Woodford Ave. in Elyria.
In the works for the past year, Second Harvest raised $200,000 for its purchase, with assistance from organizations including Cargill, Nord Family Foundation, 21st Century Foundation and Bloomfield Family Foundation, said Susan Bartosch, director of external affairs at Second Harvest.
“It’s fantastic when we’re doing this type of stuff because we can bring them twice as much food,” Bartosch said.
“It’s fantastic when we’re doing this type of stuff because we can bring them twice as much food.”
— Susan Bartosch, director of external affairs at Second Harvest
“We have more and more food to give, but we can’t take two trucks to (destinations) farther away and we might be limited to what we can bring.
“We might have the food, but just can’t get it to them.”
The 22-pallet capacity truck delivered 11,270 pounds food to Beyond the Walls Church, with assistance from a group of volunteers from Elyria-based Dura-Line for its food pantry and hot meals program.
The 48-foot refrigerated trailer with a gate and a semi-tractor was added to Second Harvest’s fleet to address the need to increase the amount of food per distribution in the most efficient manner, Bartosch said.
“Like this particular group and a few others, they do a huge volume,” she said. “They just serve a lot of people.
“And either we can’t get them everything they need, or we have to make a couple of trips. And that’s extra time and money and gas.”
Increase in distribution
Julie Chase-Morefield, president and CEO of Second Harvest, said she expects the new addition to increase the distribution capacity by at least 37 percent.
Partner charities like Beyond the Walls church which conduct large distributions will benefit the most, Chase-Morefield said.
In December alone, Beyond the Walls served 1,323 unique individuals, 33 percent of which were children and 14 percent were senior citizens.
Beyond the Wall pastors Paul and Cindy Grodell said they started the program about three years ago and served about 60,000 people in 2018 and are projected to serve about 75,000 in 2019.
“These guys are amazing because they’ve kept up with the demand, and there’s such a need in the area,” Paul Grodell said. “When we first started, we didn’t realize the need was that great.
“But there’s people from all over that come, and I think 30-35 percent is children under 18 that benefit from it. So politics aside, you can’t argue with that.”
Paul Grodell said the distribution started small and grew.
It has welcomed local partners like Dura-Line, he said.
“I had no idea we would grow into this just like we had no idea the church would grow into this,” Paul Grodell said. “The church is like a community center.
“There’s people that don’t belong to this church who come and serve. I think people are quick to come together for a common good.”
Beyond the Walls distribute food locally to the city’s vulnerable populations going to local hotels, bridges and tent city.
“It’s amazing, the people in the community and how receptive they are,” Cindy Grodell said.
Aaron Gayheart, director of manufacturing for DuraLine, said volunteers come to Beyond the Walls every Friday, and reflects their desire to give back and be involved in the community.
“What we do here affects the whole community, “Gayheart said. “We have 160 employees locally, and there’s a large number of employees who come through the food bank and utilize this so it’s really important to us.”