Vermont Food Bank Rutland location reopens after yearlong renovation

Leaders of the Vermont Food Bank and community partners met at the distribution center on Park Street Monday to celebrate the official reopening and a private tour.

The smallest of Vermont’s three food bank locations underwent a $1.2 million renovation that started a year ago.

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"By having the freezer, we're seeing a variety of products that we didn't see before out of this space," director of Rutland Distribution Center Casey Thomas said.

Additionally, the facility has an upgraded cooler powered by CO2 rather than refrigerant. Many refrigerants are ozone-depleting substances according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

With these improvements, in addition to a freezer, the distribution center is now able to store meat and dairy products.

VT Food Banks works with roughly 300 organizations across the state. Now, those in Rutland and surrounding counties are able to receive those products, which would have otherwise had to be purchased at a grocery store through the food bank or through one of the other locations in Barre or Brattleboro.

"What it does is it helps us be able to get the food here so that we can use it for cooking and also use it to give out. We're able to get fresh, nutritious food to our neighbors, which is really essential,” said Ellie McGarry, the executive director of Companions in Wholeness, which will soon rebrand to Rutland Neighbors. “It gives them hope, it gives them stability. And then we find that they come back and they access other services that we have for housing and for jobs and so forth."

McGarry leads the running of Rutland’s only day shelter where volunteers serve breakfast and lunch to the homeless and those with food insecurity Monday through Thursday.

Those who rely on the services of the shelter like Lindi Smith, who said she recently became homeless, says anything to support the shelter is good news.

"If it wasn't for this church, I don't know what we would do," she said. "Having a safe place to go and get food and eat and spend a little bit of safe hours, you know, during the day, it means everything."

The Food Bank says out of every five people in Vermont two are struggling with food insecurity. To find a food shelf near you click here.

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