Cultivate Food Rescue breaks ground on new cold storage facility

SOUTH BEND, Ind - The reality for 34 million Americans in this country is dealing with food insecurity.  

 Not only that, but according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. wastes 40 percent of the food it produces, which equates to about 133 billion pounds of food annually.  

This food insecurity problem plagues northern Indiana and a local non-for-profit organization, Cultivate Food Rescue, has big plans to help combat this issue. 

Cultivate food rescue is breaking ground on a cold storage facility that can rescue 19 million pounds of food annually, while combating food insecurity. 

“So, imagine being a child and not knowing when or if you are going to eat again,” said Mark McGill of South Bend Regional Chamber of Commerce. 

Cultivate Board Vice President, John Tippmann III believes it will address a great need in the community and the entire state.   

“To have a non-for-profit company taking the time and the effort and the strategy to put up a building that will be solely for the community to make sure that they can provide food for children in the area and even further down the road, it's just going to be a great success,” said Tippmann III.  

Cultivate has already done amazing work, but adding this facility will allow it to reduce food waste and rescue more than 47 million dollars' worth of perfectly good, nutritious meals per year. 

The Executive Director of Cultivate, Jim Conklin, says the idea of being able to help people on a daily basis is rewarding. 

“Somebody is struggling with food needs, and we waste 40 percent of what we produce in this country. That just doesn’t make sense to me. All we need is infrastructure and logistics to fix that problem,” said Conklin.   

Indiana U.S. congressman, Rudy Yakym, who represents the second district, attended the groundbreaking.  

He feels real change comes from local organizations like Cultivate. 

“What this organization does it help fill a gap between food that would go to waste and children who are hungry that’s not a big government solution that’s people on the ground in St joe county coming together and figuring out how we actually solve a real problem,” said Yakym. 

Construction on this facility is supposed to be completed by summer of 2024.

If you are interested in donating to cultivate food rescue you can visit their website.