The State College Food Bank’s ‘bigger and better’ location is open. Take a look around

The State College Food Bank serves hundreds of people across Centre County, and in the nonprofit’s new location, they’re welcomed into a much larger space that offers new services and ways to help.

Formerly located at 1321 S. Atherton St., the food bank’s new home is 169 Gerald St., the former site of Apple Hill Antiques. Renovations began in summer 2023, with a capital campaign launched toward the overall $4.3 million cost of construction.

Allayn Beck, the food bank’s executive director, was one of many overseeing and helping with the move, which was completed late last month in time for the facility to open on April 1.

“We’re going from a building with around 5,000 square feet to one with around 18,000 square feet — the size of the pantry alone in this building is bigger than the food bank as a whole at our old location,” Beck said Wednesday. “This place is bigger and better than before — it’s immense and I think it’s going to be a welcome change for all of our clients and volunteers.”

Because of the additional space, Beck anticipates that multiple clients will be able to get their food at the same time and have whatever kind of experience they want.

“With the old building we were really limited to what we could and couldn’t do,” Beck said. “It sometimes felt like the clients were being rushed to get their food, but now they can come here and do whatever they’d like at their own pace — I think it’s going to take the pressure off of everyone.”

Whenever someone registered with the food bank walks into the new space, they will be greeted at the front desk where they will check in. They then will grab a cart and with a volunteer, they can stroll around the building to pick out their food.

When they’re done, the client can come back up to the front of the building and the food bank’s grocery cart runners will help load the goods into the client’s vehicle.

If a client doesn’t have access to a vehicle for a ride home, the food bank will arrange for a ride to pick them up and take them where they need to go — whether it’s through Uber, Lyft or CATA.

“If you can just get here, we’ll find a way to get you back home,” Beck said.

If there’s line for the pantry when the client arrives, the new building also includes a waiting room so that clients won’t have to wait elsewhere.

Another new feature of the new location is the loading dock, which, according to Beck, not only allows the food bank to take in larger donations of food, but also made the moving process significantly easier.

“We spent the whole month of March moving,” Beck said. “I thought that it was going to take a bit longer than it actually would, but having access to a loading dock of that size made it so much easier.”

Of all the new features, the one that Beck spoke most highly about was the addition of a 24-hour donation room, where anyone can visit the food bank at any time and drop a donation off for someone in need.

“We used to have people leave donations outside our door in the middle of the night all the time, and now if they want to do that, all we have a place specifically designated for them to do that. It’s a great service that I’m really happy we can now offer,” Beck said.

The building is also expected to bring new opportunities for the nonprofit.

“Because of the additional space, we’re now in a much better position to help out other facilities trying to do the same thing as us,” Beck said. “Unfortunately we just can’t serve everyone — that’s a fact of life. However, we can now do more partnered work with farther out organizations like the Snow Shoe Food Bank or Meals on Wheels. Food is a basic need, and with his new building we can help provide that need in more ways than we could’ve imagined.”

Grocery distribution hours at the facility are from 1-4:30 p.m. on Mondays, and from 1-3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays. Donation drop-off hours are from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Mondays and from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays.

For more information about donating to the State College Food Bank, visit www.scfoodbank.org or follow State College Food Bank on Instagram or Facebook. Anyone interested in volunteering can apply for weekly shifts on the food bank’s website.