WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – The Lowville Food Pantry is finishing work on its new state-of-the-art facility – a project that has been two years in the making.
Volunteers say it’s going to help them serve more patrons.
“We’ll have more space to actually spread the pantry out and be able to serve more people at a quicker pace,” said CEO Daniel Taylor.
The 36,000 square foot facility includes tall ceilings that are a huge plus because they are able to put in tall pallet racks for additional storage.
There is also room now for a walk-in cooler, a row of fridges that are easily accessible and, once transformed, a new office space for staff.
Taylor says the land was donated to them by AMF Worldwide back in 2016, just a stone’s throw away from their old location.
“We were originally going to try to restore the big building that is up front but then we found out that the cost of it and the board decided to just build a new pantry,” he said.
Taylor says it’s taken two years to get to this point and if it weren’t for a handful of Fort Drum soldiers, it could have been longer.
“They helped us put up the racks, they’ve helped us move the food to the racks, set it up. They’ve helped us move furniture in,” he said.
But, there is still more work to be done. Taylor says they will close the old location all of next week to finish the move, with the hopes of reopening in the new one on July 26.
“We just take one day at a time and want to help the community that we serve,” he said.
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