A new home for the Central Kitsap Food Bank is open and serving those in need. A formal ribbon-cutting took place last week.

But anyone who’s been a part of the Central Kitsap Food Bank in the past 25 years knows its humble beginnings.

The “food pantry” as it was called back in 1987 when it began, was located in the basement of the Silverdale Methodist Church on Silverdale Way. It was the work of church volunteers and others from the community that saw a rising need for food, the the Reaganomics era when social programs were cut from the government’s budget. The Central Kitsap Food Bank became the actual name and it became a nonprofit organization in 1988.

But as the need grew, so did the need for more space.

So, as the current executive director Hoyt Burrows recalls, the food bank moved in 1994 to its former location behind Central Kitsap High School. Burrows said the school district offered the warehouse location at a minimal cost.

“We were here because of the generosity of the school district,” he said. “We didn’t have money to build a building and we didn’t really have money to lease anything at the going rate.”

Since 1994, up until last week, the CK Food Bank served folks from the school district-owned building, first feeding about 10 to 15 families a day, to now when the need is conservatively listed at 35 families a day. It was about 1,600 square feet of space.

Burrows became executive director of the food bank in September 2006 and his number one goal has been to find the food bank a location that had room for everything under one roof and that could accommodate future growth.

“We always wanted to have our own building,” he said. “We have known all along that at some point the school district would want this land back for the junior high campus.”

Burrows and those on the board of directors throughout the years went to work to let the community know of the services offered by the food bank and of its need for a building.

“We knew that there was more need out there than people lining up at our door,” he said. “And we knew we needed to let donors out there know that we needed their help.”

Hoyt said that the primary purpose of the food bank, all along, has been to serve the needs of the community. CK Food Bank has been a part of the Kitsap County Food Bank Coalition since it began in 1994. All eight food banks in the county participate and help each other feed those in need throughout the county.

Through the coalition, CK Food Bank partners with Food Lifeline and Northwest Harvest in Seattle, and in turn gets food items and products to give to clients. While the food can be purchased in bulk quantities at better prices, the CK Food Bank pays for food from those organizations.

Burrows said as the need has grown, the school district building became more and more cramped. Many times, food would have to be stored off-site in rental units or in church basements which only added time and confusion to the process of feeding hungry people in Central Kitsap.

In the school district building, on-site food storage, the shelves and refrigerated cabinets that clients shop from, the administrative offices, and the client-intake area were all in one room.

“We needed a bigger service area,” Burrows said. “We were in such cramped spaces.”

Year by year the situation got worse. The need became greater and Burrows, staff and volunteers did their best to keep up with the pace from the old building. Burrows said every time they’d go looking for a new home, something would happen and it didn’t work out.

His wife, Sandra Burrows, said Hoyt never gave up.

“There would be times when he’d be down and I’d tell him it’s gonna work out,” she said. “And then there’d be times when me and everyone else was down and he’d be the one telling us that it was going to work out.”

She said her husband “never, never, gave up.”

“Since the day he took this job, he knew he’d find a place,” Mrs. Burrows said. “He’s not the preaching type, but he has a deep faith.”

It was last year when the CK Food Bank was awarded the C. Keith Birkenfeld grant that everyone knew they were set to purchase a building.

Once the building was purchased, it had to be remodeled, Burrows said. It was previously a home, onto which a warehouse was added. It previously was owned by Tri-Star Installation and had housed a granite countertop installation company.

Burrows said many local companies donated needed items for the remodel such as paint. He said some construction labor and the labor for the move was donated by sailors from the USS Stennis and from the Intermediate Maintenance Facility at Bangor.

The general contractor on the project was Eric Johnson of Johnson Homes. PSW Electric, owned by Scott Wakefield, oversaw the electrical work on the building and donated labor.

The new building is about 7,900 square feet. About 5,500 of that is used for warehouse and storage of product. In that space, the food bank has a walk-in freezer and a walk-in cooler.

There’s about 1,600 square-feet of food bank space, including four rows of shelved food, and refrigerator-freezers for frozen food, milk and cheese and other cold products.

There’s a separate lobby and waiting area, a private client in-take area, administrative offices and a small kitchen for the staff to use as  lunchroom.

Visitors to the food bank, which opened to serve clients on April 7, comment on the space and on how neat and clean it it, Burrows said.

“We are so pleased with how everything is turning out,” Burrows said, noting the commitment of staff and volunteers to the move. “Above all else, we want to thank the community for supporting us. What it all really comes down to is the community helping to take care of each other.”