There’s an exciting transformation going on at the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Food Bank, and it’s thanks to a very generous grant from Republic Services and Rebuilding Together Sacramento . The food bank was awarded $250,000 earlier this year for upgrades and improvement to better serve its clients and help the volunteers.
“Our commitment to being a good neighbor is reinforced through our charitable giving initiatives,” said Elena Goodhall, director of charitable giving for Republic Services. “Engaging with and investing in the communities where we live and work is how we help foster sustainable neighborhoods. Our local teams look forward to working closely with the grant recipients to help bring these projects to life.”
Some of the highlights the money from the grant will provide will be a new farmstand, picnic benches, a covered area for the freezer and an awning for shade, children's educational displays and two new vibrant murals.
“Republic Services and Rebuilding Together Sacramento were looking for a big outside project that they could really put a quarter million dollars of money into, some sort of outdoor space. They were looking for a park initially, and learned about our farm at the food bank, and came out and visited. Loved it. So now we’re in this project and just wrapping it up now,” says Brad Squires, Orangevale-Fair Oaks Community Foundation CEO and founder of the food bank.
The grant money will be used to build a new farmstand, which will sell fresh-grown produce from the Food Farm next door starting in 2025. There will be a new covered awning installed to help keep the walk-in freezers cool.
“We had a walk-in fridge and freezer that was overheating in the summer because it was getting direct sun, and so we put a cover over it,” Squires says.
A compost area will be established where scraps from the farm will be repurposed to help grow vegetables for the farm. “All the waste that goes out of the food bank that we can't give away will turn into soil for the farm,” Squires says. Benches will be installed, along with a new bathroom and an education area for children and visitors to learn about the food bank.
“We built a new fence across the back, and we're going to do six or seven different educational displays for people when they come to the farm. They can learn about bees and soil health and irrigation, and see how seed planting is done. And we'll swap those education displays out periodically, but it'll make for a nice experience when people come out to the farm to be able to get a tour, a self-guided tour of the farm,” Squires says.
Perhaps the most visually exciting installation will be one mural created by renowned local artists Franceska Gamez and Shaun Turner of the 1810 Gallery in Sacramento and two other murals created by artist Alika Rogers-Crooks.
There will also be new picnic benches for the volunteers. About 850 people from different
organizations and walks of life volunteer each year at the food bank. “You can have a picnic place for the volunteers to sit and hang out. We’re upgrading both of our volunteer break areas at the farm and the food bank.”
Rebuilding Together affiliates complete thousands of rebuild projects every year across the country helping neighbors in need and working to revitalize communities. The local chapter Rebuilding Together Sacramento was awarded the National Neighborhood Promise® Grant in March 2024 and chose the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Food Bank & Farm as one of their major neighborhood improvement projects.
The project at the OVFO Food Bank & Farm began in May, and construction by Artistry Builders got underway in June and are expected to wrap up at the end of August 2024.
As part of their commitment to being a good neighbor in the communities where we live and work, Republic Services and Rebuilding Together Sacramento would like to invite you to join us for National Neighborhood Promise Day September 28th, 2024 benefitting the Orangevale-Fair Oaks Food Bank and Farm.
Registration opens September 1st: Click Here to Register
Judy Farah
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