For more than seven months, the Ballard Food Bank has been preparing for this day. Today, the non-profit moves from their location on 24th Ave NW to a much larger space at 5130 Leary Ave NW.
The new location of the Ballard Food Bank on Leary Ave NW.
The Ballard Food Bank was able to get into this space, despite the down economy, thanks to the community, Nancy McKinney, the executive director of the Ballard Food Bank tells us. Two-thirds of the tenant improvements to the building were in-kind donations of labor and material.
Just inside the front door of the new Ballard Food Bank.
“When you go into our new building the paint job, we paid 1/3 of what it would normally cost, the granite counters were donated, kitchen cabinets were donated, Limback Lumber donated nearly $4,000 worth of raw wood materials. The walk in cooler and freezer we got at cost, we wrote a grant to a local foundation that paid for almost half of it,” McKinney tells us, “The story just goes on and on.”
Artwork hanging above the shopping area of the Ballard Food Bank.
“Not only do we have efficient space but we have some interesting things to look at that are colorful,” McKinney says. The artwork that you see in the new space was donated by local artists. “The building is just fun and colorful and alive!”
Volunteers unloading food at the new location.
This morning, Ballard High School football players and community volunteers donated their time to pack up the old space, unload at the new space and sort the food. Later in the day a personal trainer group called BodyDoc will do some heavy lifting. “We just feel really embraced by the community,” McKinney says.
The food bank will not skip a beat because of the move. They’ll be open on Tuesday for their next scheduled distribution day.
Did they warn the hobos or should we expect to still see them stumbling up the road?