Second Harvest Food Bank celebrates its grand opening with a ribbon cutting and patron party with Treme Brass Band for guests including Gayle Benson, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Cathy and Morris Bart, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and many other officials.

First Lady Donna Edwards joins Second Harvest Food Bank at the grand opening and ribbon cutting of its new Tom and Gayle Benson Food and Nutrition Center. 

Second Harvest Food Bank celebrates its grand opening with a ribbon cutting and patron party with Treme Brass Band for guests including Gayle Benson, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Cathy and Morris Bart, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and many other officials.

Second Harvest Food Bank celebrates its grand opening with a ribbon cutting and patron party with Treme Brass Band for guests including Gayle Benson, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Cathy and Morris Bart, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and many other officials.

Second Harvest Food Bank celebrates its grand opening with a ribbon cutting and patron party with Treme Brass Band for guests including Gayle Benson, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Cathy and Morris Bart, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and many other officials.

First Lady Donna Edwards joins Second Harvest Food Bank at the grand opening and ribbon cutting of its new Tom and Gayle Benson Food and Nutrition Center. 

Second Harvest Food Bank celebrates its grand opening with a ribbon cutting and patron party with Treme Brass Band for guests including Gayle Benson, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Cathy and Morris Bart, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and many other officials.

Second Harvest Food Bank celebrates its grand opening with a ribbon cutting and patron party with Treme Brass Band for guests including Gayle Benson, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, Cathy and Morris Bart, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser and many other officials.

Second Harvest Food Bank celebrated the grand opening Friday of its newly renovated food distribution center, which will allow the organization to increase its impact across the 23 south Louisiana parishes it serves by nearly 50%.

That’s no small thing, considering the food bank provides some 50 million meals a year to the approximately 400,000 south Louisiana residents who are considered “food insecure.”

“We feel the urgency every day and we have to do more,” said Second Harvest President and CEO Natalie Jayroe. “But we had reached our capacity with this building. The roof was leaking. The warehouse was not climate-controlled. There was no space for volunteers.”

The $16 million upgrade and overhaul to the facility on Edwards Avenue, which has been named the Tom and Gayle Benson Food and Nutrition Center in honor of its signature donors, will enable Second Harvest to get more food out to needy communities in several ways.

New second-floor office space has been added to what was a mezzanine level, freeing up space on the warehouse floor to expand the volunteer repack and work area with a newer, larger conveyor system and box-building station.

The reconfigured space will enable the organization to accommodate twice as many volunteers, working on a conveyor system that is nearly five times larger than the old one, Jayroe said.

That’s significant because much of the food arrives in bulk form and volunteers must repack it into more manageable boxes for distribution to partner agencies in the service area.

The more volunteers on hand to support Second Harvest staff, the more boxes the organization can repack and distribute to needy communities.

“We want to double the number of volunteers and this will make that possible, which will help us increase our production to 70 million meals per year,” Jayroe said.

The renovation also includes additional freezer and cooler capacity, a new climate control system and emergency response accommodations, including showers and hoteling space for employees in times of disaster response.

There’s also freshwater catch cisterns for sustainability of gardens and a new entrance, lobby space and outdoor courtyard to welcome the community and gather volunteers.

More than 175 well-heeled donors, community leaders, and elected officials joined Second Harvest administrators, staff and volunteers for the grand opening and ribbon-cutting, which included a second-line and reception. Louisiana first lady Donna Edwards joined Jayroe, Gayle Benson and others on the dais and spoke to the significance of the work the organization does.

“We have children in our state who go to bed hungry, and when children are hungry, that is manifested in lots of ways,” Edwards said. “Second Harvest is doing something about it every day.”

Donors to the two-year capital campaign that funded the renovation said they wanted to support the project because of the impact it will have fighting food insecurity.

“This facility will enable them to help so many more people in need,” said Reily Foods President and CEO Bo Reily. “It’s really important for the community.”

The event also marked something of an anniversary celebration for Second Harvest, which was founded in 1982 by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Over the past four decades, the organization has provided food access through a network of partners agencies and program across its 23-parish area stretching from the Mississippi border to the Texas line.

Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com.

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