HELENA — Back in October, Helena Food Share announced their plans to move to a new location on Boulder Ave. On Wednesday, they shared more details on their future facility and relocation plans.
Helena Food Share provides groceries for around 1,500 families each month. That's on top of other food support programs like the Kid's Packs and Holiday Meals, and the need has grown over the past few years.
To help support that increased need, Food Share has worked on an expansion and relocation.
They picked the empty lot on Bolder Ave. to create a new 20-thousand-square-foot facility. Bruce Day, the executive director of Helena Food Share, explained that it will have more parking and storage, ultimately helping it more effectively and efficiently feed the community.
"It's really a facility that will give us expanded ability to be able to serve the need for those who are food insecure or hungry in our community. Also to be able to access and bring in more food from the community and make it available to more people," said Day
Day says they have most of the plans worked out for the new location's timeline, but there is still one thing missing from getting started.
"You know, we have architects on hand, Mosaic Architecture. And, you know, we're working with Dick Anderson Construction, but we've not started construction yet," said Day.
They hope to break ground this summer, but before they can put shovels to the dirt they need some help from the community, to get over the funding finish line.
"We're already 75% toward our goal. And now we're inviting the broader community into this effort to make sure that we have the adequate resources in order to build a new Helena food share for the community," Day.
The Helena food share has received over 7 million dollars in support so far for their 10.3 million dollar project.
