Like many of the businesses and organizations in the Capital Region, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is still cleaning up after the recent flooding and is aiming to return its warehouse operations to the Fraenkel Center on South Choctaw Drive as soon as possible.
In the meantime, Mike Manning, the food bank’s president and CEO, says the organization is doing its best to address the substantially increased need in the greater Baton Rouge area since the flooding.
“We are distributing food, have gone into neighborhoods wherever we’ve identified the need and are working through our agencies that are operational,” he says.
The food bank received about four feet of water during floods that overwhelmed large swaths of south Louisiana roughly two weeks ago. “We lost more than a half million pounds of food, lost our trucks, forklifts, computers, office equipment—everything,” Manning says, adding that the food bank is now operating out of a temporary location that’s one-tenth the size of the Fraenkel Center.
The flood has impacted the food bank in more ways than one. Every year, the food bank receives food donations from Associated Grocers’ fall food show, which usually takes place at the Baton Rouge River Center.
But with the River Center being used as a shelter for flood victims, this year’s show was canceled, says Manning, who met with a cleaning contractor and an industrial hygienist today.
“Associated Grocers has been great to us. They’ve already set us up to get assistance as we go forward from here,” he says. AG confirmed the cancellation of the event, but President and CEO Emile Breaux was not available for an interview today.
Businesses, organizations, celebrities and food banks from across the country have donated money and food to help the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank get back on its feet. The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry is also accepting truckloads of food donations for the food bank at its warehouse, Manning says.
The food is then brought the food bank’s smaller facility, also on South Choctaw, to be loaded up on trucks and distributed.
Manning says it’s too soon to put a number on how much the food bank has received in food donations. Monetary donations and prayers are still needed, he says.
—Alexandria Burris
