Food Bank on the Hunt for New Home

Aug. 30–It doesn’t take long to realize that the old, silvery gray metal warehouse on the former Navy base that houses the Lowcountry Food Bank needs work.

On the outside, the building looks like what it is: a rusted former military storehouse. It needs new windows and a new roof. Inside, poor insulation keeps it hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

Nevertheless, the building has provided the agency a rent-free home for the last seven years, allowing it to boost its food distribution ninefold and expand its reach along the coast.

“It’s very rough-looking, and it’s not very pretty,” said Archie McRee, the agency’s director. “But it’s done the job. We can’t complain. It’s been good to us.”

Now, because of plans to redevelop the base, this building has to go, and with it goes the food bank, which is studying the prospect of raising $5 million in what would be the first capital fund-raising campaign in its 22-year history.

The food bank is looking to move into an existing building, though it would build its own structure as a “last resort.” That’s partly because the agency has one year to find a new location before the old building goes down, “which is real scary,” McRee said.

“It’s plenty of time if you have to find a new house,” but not if you’re looking for a building that can be used to distribute up to 20 million pounds of food a year. “We’re obviously not going to build a building in that time,” he said.

The food bank was started in 1983 as a clearinghouse for donated food. Its first location was in downtown Charleston, and it later moved to Ladson. In 1998 the food bank moved into the shell of a former Navy supply building. The agency spent $250,000 to renovate the structure.

The building’s free space allows the food bank to keep its costs low. The agency charges the 400 charities along the coast to which it distributes food a “shared maintenance fee” of 4.8 cents a pound. That’s a fraction of the 40 cents the food bank could charge, McRee said, and more than 9 cents a pound less than what it costs the agency to collect and distribute the food. It makes up the difference through various grants, donations and federal funds.

The building also has allowed the food bank to blossom, giving it more than enough space for food, as well as easy access to Interstate 26 just down Cosgrove Avenue.

The agency distributed 1.1 million pounds of food in 1998 to 120 different charities that feed the needy. Last year, the food bank distributed 10.3 million pounds of food to 400 charities. This year it expects to distribute 11 million pounds.

Nevertheless, the food bank has long known the location would be temporary, especially as North Charleston and state officials looked for ways to rejuvenate the base. Indeed, knowing that the space would be temporary has kept the agency from making any more improvements such as replacing the windows or the roof, McRee said.

The Noisette Co., which is redeveloping that portion of the base as part of a revitalization project, wants to raze the structure to make way for an office park. Earlier this year the food bank was told it needed to find a new location by next year.

The agency is working with Custom Development Solutions, a Mount Pleasant fund-raising consulting company that is in the midst of a study to determine whether a fund-raiser would be feasible, and how much could be raised.

The food bank would like a facility with about 60,000 square feet of space in North Charleston, preferably near an interstate and as ready as possible, given the short time frame.

Such a building could cost $3 million. In addition, McRee said, the group would like to raise another $2 million to establish its first endowment, which would give it funds to operate the new location and keep operating costs low.

The study is expected to be completed by October, after which the food bank will make a decision about whether to proceed and how much to raise.

Libby Skelley, director of marketing for Custom Development Solutions, doesn’t believe the food bank will have much difficulty raising the money.

“They’re going to support this in the community no matter what, because of what (the food bank) is and what they do for the community,” Skelley said.

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