In the wake of a flood at its current warehouse, Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee is asking individuals and businesses in East Tennessee to take a 78,000 square-foot step forward and help fund a new distribution facility to serve the hungry of our region.

Second Harvest Board members and staff joined food bank partners and recipients, donors, elected officials and others to kick off the public phase of a $2.2 million fund-raising campaign to help pay for and turn an Alcoa building into a food bank.

Standing where floodwaters ruined food in the current warehouse last week and beside a tractor-trailer truck normally used to deliver to food to Second Harvest's warehouse on Delaware Avenue in North Knoxville, Executive Director Elaine Streno described the food bank's current challenge:

"Second Harvest is running out of space but not hungry people. Demand for food in East Tennessee has increased about 35 percent in the past two years at a time of economic distress for many families. Second Harvest is forced to turn away food, sometimes tractor-trailer loads such as this one."

Board Chair Richard Johnson said the board has raised $3.8 million already from major donors. The board then purchased the former Walker Supply Building in Alcoa for a 78,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility to serve Second Harvest's 18-county region.

"It's a great building, but it's not a food bank," Johnson said. "We have to finish paying for the building, and we have to make modifications and additions to the Alcoa facility to make it fully operational.

Johnson said that's why Second Harvest needs to raise another $2.2 million by July 4, and the food bank is appealing to individuals, church groups, businessmen and women, civic clubs, and others to hear and act on the special capital appeal.

"People in East Tennessee are very generous and always have been there for Second Harvest in big ways," Johnson said. "But we need their help for this special cause. When you are hungry, it's harder to find a job, harder to concentrate in school and harder to take care of your children. Satisfying hunger is a baseline for life."

U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. joined other elected officials at the kickoff. His district includes many of the counties served by Second Harvest.

"As I talk to people throughout my district, it's clear that hunger is a problem that needs to be addressed," Duncan said. "Second Harvest and its partner agencies and schools do a great job, and this new distribution facility will help them overcome the effects of the flood and be able to get food to even more people."

About Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee

Second Harvest is a distribution organization. We take donated and purchased food and distribute it to our 500 partner agencies in the 18 East Tennessee counties we serve. Through those partner agencies and schools, we serve 158,000 people per month. One in five of the people in the East Tennessee counties served by Second Harvest live at or near the poverty level, which is $17,500 for a family of four. Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee, a member of Feeding America, has worked to eliminate hunger since 1982.