FRESNO (KMJ) — Fresno’s Poverello house needs your help to “Raise The Roof” on its latest project.
Officials at the Downtown Fresno site are looking for a total of $2.5 million to build a new food warehouse.
“We just finished the quiet phase of our campaign, we spoke with a lot of our private donors,” explains Director of Fund Development Pedro Santana. “We were able to raise about $1.1 million – again the total cost of this project is $2.5 million so we’re about 40% towards our goal.”
The storage area is set to be built on the current site at 412 F. Street, and would be among other improvements to the operations center and community housing. The new 19,000 square-foot food storage area is designed as all metal, insulated, and include more space for forklifts and storage. It’ll also feature a more accessible public drop off location.
“We provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner on a daily basis. This will allow us to serve more and more families in need, not just in our local area but in the rural areas of Fresno County.
“We saw a lot of need in those outskirt towns – like Mendota, Kerman.”
The name of the campaign, “Raise The Roof”, is very literal.
“The roof is actually caved in, in one section of the food warehouse,” explains Santana. “So we thought ‘hey, why not list it as raise this roof’, so that’s how that concept came about.”
The food warehouse was originally built in 1945.
