Story Published: Sep 6, 2010 at 6:46 AM PST
Story Updated: Sep 6, 2010 at 6:46 AM PST
The Food Bank landed three different grants, all at the same time. Vice President of Development Jenifer Johnson said the funds will pay for upgrades to facilities and help meet increased need for food assistance in local communities.
"As we see increased need through the Idaho Food Bank and all our partner network agencies across the state, we knew that we would need to make some improvements to our infrastructure and to our technology infrastructure in order to meet the need for our rapidly increasing demand for free emergency food," said Johnson.
The majority of the upgrades will be done to the central facility in Boise, but technological upgrades will be seen all over the state.
"That is utilizing software and computers that are pretty specific to food banking and food distribution," said Johnson. "Inventory tracking and control, bar coding and also our transportation system. It's a significant investment in the technology that will help us streamline things and get into the 21st century."
The largest of the grants came from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The other grants came from the Feeding America Organization, and an anonymous donor.
Johnson said the funds are especially needed as the Food Bank heads into it's busiest season.
"It all came together within just a week or two of being announced," said Johnson. "It's allowing us this fall, before we get into the busiest part of the season, to improve our efficiency. We're using foundation dollars not donor dollars to do that, which is very exciting. Then we're able to use those donor dollars just to meet that increased need."
