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Food Bank Celebrates Anniversary With Expansion

 Instead of a groundbreaking, speakers used trowels to turn some corn kernels, symbolizing John Deere support that provided the "seed" funds to open the Food Bank.
WVIK News
Instead of a groundbreaking, speakers used trowels to turn some corn kernels, symbolizing John Deere support that provided the "seed" funds to open the Food Bank.

President and CEO Mike Miller says more than half of the 9.4 million dollar cost has been raised already in the campaign called "Expanding to End Hunger."

"So this food bank and this expansion project doesn't belong to me or this staff, it belongs to our entire community. And so we ask the community to help us to build this big enough to meet the entire need. That's what "Expanding to End Hunger" is all about."

The Food Bank opened in 1982, at the height of the farm crisis, and one of the first partners was the Project Now community action agency. Executive Director Dwight Ford says every hour of every day, someone benefits from the work of the Food Bank.

"Food insecurity, hunger, is an unwelcome intruder in our region's house and it must be evicted. And that's why I love this organization's bold commitment to end hunger."

The River Bend Food Bank now distributes more than 20 million meals a year to more than 300 partner organizations, in 23 Iowa and Illinois counties.

The expansion will add 25,000 square feet to the current 60,000 square foot warehouse.

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A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.