Days that clients of South Kitsap Helpline food bank have to go to a deteriorating building with uneven flooring and contend with a crowded parking lot to pick up needed staples may soon come to an end.

A $8.5 million food bank is on the drawing board, said South Kitsap Helpline executive director Jennifer Hardison.

The 10,000-square-foot building, slated to be built at the food bank’s current location just off Mitchell Avenue in Port Orchard, could be completed as early as November 2024, according to planners.

“The building will feature greenhouse-inspired architecture, allowing for a lot of natural light to come in,” Hardison said. “It will be large, open and airy and more welcoming and inviting than our current location.

“We are going to take every opportunity to make the place not look like a church basement where some people think food pantries and food banks should be located. We really want to make it be an experience for people to where they are not ashamed to come in,” Hardison said.

The new facility will be a vast improvement, she said.

“Our buildings are literally crumbling,” Hardison said. “The food bank is basically the size of a glorified walk-in closet. It’s dark. It doesn’t lend itself to client dignity. Right now, people wait outside under awnings to receive their groceries.”

The current food bank is spread over an acre. South Kitsap Helpline purchased the property in 2010 and since then the food bank has been run out of the former nursery store. Offices are located in the residence of the previous owners. Sheds were converted to storage areas for foodstuffs.

Plans for the new food bank will bring all operations under one roof.

“We’ll have the large food bank self-serve market, waiting area, warehouse, community room and offices all be one in space,” Hardison said.

The community room will be a key addition. It will provide a space that other organizations can use to provide services to those visiting the food bank. Medical services and job assistance help are examples, Hardison said.

“The Peninsula Community Health mobile unit that goes to other locations can’t fit here onto our property to assist our clients with medical needs,” Hardison said. “We also don’t have a location here to do things like flu shots and haircuts. We also see many people with pets – we would love to be able to hold a vet clinic once a month,” the director said.

The community room will also allow visits from groups like WorkSource, which provides employment and training to job seekers, and Coffee Oasis, a nonprofit that assists youth.

Mental health and legal services are other amenities the shelter hopes to bring in. “Now, we can only provide people with food and refer them to other organizations. Having these organizations here…is going to be amazing,” Hardison said.

A café and commercial kitchen will be other features. “We want to have a kitchen to process a lot of the bulk foods that we get into soups and sandwiches and all sorts of things that people can sit down and have a hot meal,” Hardison said.

Plans call for the café to offer community meals during holidays.

South Kitsap Helpline is working on the funding, Hardison said. The food bank is in the running for $1.8 million in federal funds. Over 100 grants are in the pipeline to raise additional funds. To date, the project has received a $136,000 Kitsap County community development block grant and $20,000 from the South Kitsap Rotary. Several large foundations and the city of Port Orchard are being approached for funding, Hardison said.

South Kitsap Helpline serves more than 20,000 children, adults and seniors each year. The organization annually distributes more than 1 million pounds of food to more than 9,000 households in need, Hardison said.