MONTGOMERY, NEW YORK – The Regional Food Bank Hudson Valley opened their bay doors to volunteers and partner agencies for the first time at its new 50,000-square-foot distribution center in the Town of Montgomery, Orange County. The state-of-the-art facility will expand the organization’s capacity for food storage and distribution to better meet the growing demand for food assistance in the Hudson Valley on February 3rd.

“Today marks a tremendous milestone in our ultimate goal of serving more of our neighbors in need in the Hudson Valley,” said Tom Nardacci, CEO Regional Food Bank. “This project has been years in the making, tens of thousands of volunteer hours have been invested, and millions of dollars have been raised and spent, with a common goal of helping our neighbors in need. This new distribution center will help us reach more individuals and families more efficiently, and at a lower cost.”

The new distribution center will provide the Regional Food Bank with four times more storage for dry, cold and frozen foods and to purchase more food from local growers and producers through the Nourish New York program to distribute to more than 400 partnering agencies in the Hudson Valley and to local families. Direct access to highways will allow for more frequent distribution and easier access for partnering agencies to pick up food which is then delivered at the community level.

“We serve about 90 to 100 families every week, but this January we served 200 families, so we know that we’re going to have more people coming because we have a lot of new people that showed up just last week,” said Tanya Thomas from the Beacon Light Tabernacle Seventh Adventist Church food bank in Dutchess County. She was among the first of several volunteer organizations from the Hudson Valley to pick-up nutritious food from the new center.

“This facility has been a dream for the Regional Food Bank for years,” said Felicia Kalan, Executive Vice President, Hudson Valley. “Being part of this team to make it a reality has been a truly humbling experience and one that would not have been possible without the support of so many businesses, foundations, families and individuals in the Hudson Valley.”

The Regional Food Bank expects to distribute four million more pounds of food, a 20 percent increase, with the new facility and has more than doubled their Hudson Valley workforce.

“A new facility, increased distribution, adding staff, supporting more volunteers, all leads to our mission, of supporting every neighbor in need,” added Nardacci.