After more than a decade of planning and a year-long lot line adjustment process, Folsom’s Twin Lakes Food Bank closed escrow on the purchase of a 1.78-acre parcel behind Mount Olive Lutheran Church. The site, which is directly across Montrose Drive from where the food bank has been operating out of a renovated duplex for 29 years, provides space for a new facility to serve a growing need in Folsom, El Dorado Hills and Granite Bay.
“Building a larger food bank is crucial to fulfilling our mission. We are now serving more than 34,000 people a year,” said Lisa Tuter, executive director of Twin Lakes Food Bank. “The continued growth of Folsom, including more than 650 additional affordable housing units, will continue to increase the need.”
The congregation of Mount Olive Lutheran Church offered a large portion of the land eight years ago for the food bank’s organic garden, which now generates up to 6,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables for clients every year.
“Mount Olive Lutheran Church purchased this land more than 61 years ago with the intention to serve this community faithfully,” said Heather Hoffman, council president of Mount Olive Lutheran Church. “Our church has been focused on the best use of the land for many years. The Folsom’s Hope after-school program recently moved into our fellowship hall and annex buildings. On the property adjacent to ours, we have the thriving food bank organic garden and will soon have the new food bank to round out our dream of the site becoming a campus of faith-filled service to the community. We are blessed and honored to share in this new chapter of community service and are excited to watch how the Lord uses this land to serve his Kingdom.”
The entire site, including the church and food bank parcels, total almost four acres, according to Ian Cornell, the food bank’s building committee chairman. The original maps had a large lot that included both the church and the property now owned by the food bank, and two small parcels bordering Montrose Drive that planners said were likely originally intended to be the first two lots in a subdivision of homes. That has been reduced to two similarly sized parcels with utility and access easements that will allow access to the food bank site from Montrose Drive.
“Now we will get busy with engineering and architecture to prepare for construction of the new food bank,” said Cornell.
In July, Twin Lakes Food Bank announced a $3.1 million capital campaign to fund the construction of the new facility of which $2.25 million has been raised. The new facility will bring all warehouse and refrigerated storage onsite, provide for a grocery store-style client choice experience, and extend distribution days and times to better accommodate the working poor who cannot attend the current three-hour morning distribution sessions. Food storage capacity is planned to increase from 600,000 to more than one million pounds.
“The grocery store-style allows guests to select the food they know they and their family will eat versus receiving a pre-bundled supply,” said Tuter.
For more information on attending or serving at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, call 916-985-2984 or visithttps://www.mountolivefolsom.com/.
Folsom’s Twin Lakes Food Bank is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., the second Monday of the month from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and Fridays from 10 to 11:30 a.m. For more information, call 916-985-6232 or visithttps://twinlakesfoodbank.org/.
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