ODESSA, Texas — The West Texas Food Bank revealed expansion plans for their Odessa facility Thursday.
The expansion includes additions to the Abell-Hanger Foundation Volunteer Center, which will transition into a permanent dry storage. This will add more storage space for shelf-stable food to distribute to the 19 counties they currently serve.
Overall, this will provide the capacity to do more for the community.
“We’ll be able to house more food, which is good," said Libby Campbell, CEO of the West Texas Food Bank. "That means we’ll be able to supply more variety. We’ll also be able to have more volunteers, which means we can put things together quicker, that we can make things happen, especially when there’s a disaster, that we can get things done.”
There will be a separate facility added to house their volunteer workforce, a covered drive through pantry, and 150 extra parking spaces.
All of these additions will give the food bank more than 25,000 square feet of operation.
But Campbell says none of this could have been done without the support of their people and the greater community.
“I’ve always been very blessed to have such amazing support from our community, from foundations, from different corporations, from individuals, that make these projects really come to life," said Campbell. "And it’s really exciting to see this actually again, another vision, another dream, continue to keep happening right here in West Texas."
Campbell also said that they plan on having the expansions done by March of 2024.