Originally posted at Crescent Growth Capital
Established in 1982 by Jo Curtis, Ambassador Kathryn Hall, Lorraine Griffin Kircher and Liz Minyard, the North Texas Food Bank (“NTFB”) addresses the critical issue of hunger by providing food-insecure North Texans with edible surplus food and grocery items otherwise destined for landfills.
Today, NTFB leads the fight against hunger by distributing donated, purchased and prepared food to 439,000 unduplicated individuals annually through a network of more than 200 Partner Agencies and 1,000 feeding sites in 13 North Texas counties, including: Collin, Dallas, Delta, Denton, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Navarro and Rockwall. A staggering 83.4% of NTFB clients are food insecure – meaning they would otherwise have no alternative source of food. Furthermore, food insecurity affects the elderly to a disproportionate degree, given their fixed incomes and higher medical costs, in fact, every month 31.5% of NTFB clients must make a choice between food and medical care. Established in 1982 by Jo Curtis, Ambassador Kathryn Hall, Lorraine Griffin Kircher and Liz Minyard, the North Texas Food Bank addressed the critical issue of hunger by providing food-insecure North Texans with edible surplus food and grocery items otherwise destined for landfills.
Hunger continues to be a growing problem across the United States, and North Texas is no different. Based on Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap 2014 report, the estimated current annual need in North Texas was approximately 92 million nutritious meals. NTFB was operating at maximum capacity with its current facilities and was unable to meet the remaining need for an additional 30 million nutritious meals annually.
The populations most affected were families living below the poverty line, the working poor, seniors on a fixed income, adults with disabilities and children.
As part of its $55 million Stop Hunger Build Hope Capital Campaign, NTFB developed a plan for a new Northern Distribution Center in Collin County. The proposed 200,000 sq. ft. facility is expected to house 60,000 sq. ft. of dry warehouse space, 70,000 sq. ft. of refrigerated warehouse space, 12,000 sq. ft. of office space, seven refrigerated docks, 11 dry docks, a Community Garden, and a 28,000 sq. ft. volunteer center with the capacity to accommodate up to 400 volunteers per day.
In September, 2017, Crescent Growth Capital facilitated a $24M NMTC financing to help fund the $27.4M construction cost of the new Northern Distribution Center, using allocation provided by Texas Mezzanine Fund and Pacesetter, with a NMTC investment provided by US Bank. The approximately $4.4M in net NMTC subsidy directly reduced the amount of capital campaign funds required to complete this particular project, as well as affording the nonprofit some flexibility for the other Stop Hunger Build Hope Capital Campaign projects.