We are very pleased to announce that we have been selected to lease the City of Berkeley-owned warehouse property at 1001 University Avenue to serve as our food sourcing and distribution hub. We are currently in lease negotiations with the City.
Our food sourcing and distribution hub will have four functions:
- A distribution point for all BFN member agencies who would like to have food from ACCFB delivered to our warehouse in Berkeley for pick up there, saving them the trip to Oakland. We will also be able to hold food, both dry and perishable, for those agencies that are short on storage.
- A recovered food hub for receiving, sorting, reporting, and equitably distributing recovered food to any BFN member agencies that can use it. We are currently in the process of developing sources for this recovered food. In addition, we will be sourcing fresh organic produce from local urban famers.
- An on-site grocery distribution. Our on-site pantry will be open long hours 6 days a week in order to accommodate those who are not able to attend existing pantry programs.
- A warehouse for satellite distributions of prepared meals and groceries to food-insecure families and individuals who, for a variety of reasons, find it difficult to access existing grocery and meal programs. We are working with several organizations to locate food distributions at their sites. We have already begun this work with 10 (and counting!) BUSD schools and the North and South Berkeley Senior Centers. This distribution is now serving over 700 individuals, twice a month!
We are very excited to get started in this work and to strengthen our partnerships with our members.