Keyword/Tag: Austin

Generally speaking, Brighter Bites employees work out of our partners food banks in the cities where we operate. For the past year, however, the Brighter Bites staff In Austin had one desk at the old Capital Area Food Bank — not enough space for our four full-time employees, three part-time employees, and interns.

As of June 22, however, that all changed! All Brighter Bites staff members moved in together under one roof with our partners at the brand new beautiful Central Texas Food Bank building in south Austin. This modern facility will enable the new food bank (with a new name!) to bring more incredible services to Austin and the rest of Central Texas. Here are some stats about the new building with some remarkable comparisons to the old.

The new Central Texas Food Bank has:
– 135,000 sq. ft. in its new facility; the old one had 60,000 sq. ft.,
– 15 loading docks; the old one had 2,
– 2.5 times more dry storage area than the old one,
– 7 times more freezer and cooler space than the old one,
– the ability to distribute more than 60 million pounds of food per year; in the old one that number was approximately 34 million pounds per year,
– the capacity to host 80 volunteers per shift, or 151,000 volunteer hours per year; the old one could host 60 volunteers per shift, or 96,000 volunteers per year,
– a Production Kitchen which will provide the ability to prepare meals for the Summer Food Service Program and Kids Cafe, and will have the ability to cook down and freeze larger quantities of fresh produce and protein, preparing meals out of food that might otherwise have gone to waste
– a Teaching Garden (coming soon!): the half-acre garden will serve first as a teaching garden and second as a food source.

It’s a pretty impressive place. Come visit for a tour or volunteer shift!