Fight against hunger in the Hub expands

How large is the new building?

It’s 117,000 square feet, twice the square footage and four times the capacity [of the old building].

Any notable features?

It is a green building. Natural light. We’re using ambient air for the cooling system. The furniture is made from recycled materials.

How much did it cost?

The fund-raising campaign is $35 million . . . but we’re going to come under that.

How much have you raised?

Over $25 million.

Are you glad you opened the building now?

It’s a good time to have opened a building based on demand. As an example, we had a goal of distributing 28 million pounds of food. It looks like we’re going to distribute close to 30 million pounds of food this year. We could not have done that in the old building.

The downside is you had to take on additional debt.

It’s a challenge. But the success in our fund-raising allows us to reduce that debt as quickly as possible.

Why is the new building important?

It’s important because 1 out of 8 Americans goes to a pantry, soup kitchen, or shelter in this country, and the new building gives us the opportunity to increase our capacity to distribute food to those who need it most. It’s easy to hear the words “food bank’’ and think of a church basement giving out canned goods. But in fact the food bank is a significant facility - it is a warehouse distribution facility that distributes nearly $35 million to $40 million worth of product to 600 charitable organizations. I often say when we don’t do our jobs, people don’t eat. It’s very simple.

How much more food do you need to distribute to feed everyone?

If we fed every hungry person, three meals a day, it’s in the hundreds of millions of pounds. So what we try to do is focus on the highest quality, the greatest impact.

I imagine it’s frustrating you can’t do more.

There are a lot of other things at play. Hopefully, a family is utilizing whatever public assistance programs are made available to meet that need. I am most concerned about the family that is slightly above federal entitlement level (needed to qualify for public aid), but slightly below the ability to sustain themselves. So the pantry system becomes very important for families.

Where do you get most of your food?

Over 50 percent is donated from manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. And we handle federal commodities for the US Department of Agriculture and we purchase with the state commodity program. And we use some of our own resources.

Do you have to throw out much of the food you receive?

We have a goal to dump no more than 4 percent. We work very closely with donors to manage the products, but there are times when you have to throw out some items. People send things in food drives that are inappropriate, that are open, that have to be thrown away.

I gather that only a small percentage of your food comes from individuals or food drives.

Correct. It’s 3 percent. It’s very big to them. So, two kids do a canned food drive in their community and bring a half a pallet of food, that’s an activity you want to support and encourage.

How many volunteers do you have?

We have 14,000. Those come from corporations, small business, universities, religious organizations, and fraternal organizations. It saves organizations a substantial amount of money in terms of labor.

I heard you’re concerned about cuts in state funding.

We have restored and lost [state funding] four times this year. It’s the nature of the times. It’s a $12 million line of funding and we’re at $11.5 million, but we’ve been as low as $8 million in the budget process. Right now, we’re half a million down. That’s a half-million pounds of food.

So is your funding up or down overall?

Overall, it is stable or slightly ahead, and that’s mostly because of individual giving.

What is your biggest challenge?

Of the three elements we care about most - food, money, and time - money is the most challenging right now. If I have the money, I can buy the food. If I have the money, I can distribute the food.

In my 30 years in food banking, clearly the industry has shifted. There are greater efficiencies in the industry, better packaging, better handling, just-in-time inventory. There are all kinds of efficiencies, which means there is less waste for us to capture.

I noticed your bachelor’s degree was in theology. What was your original career goal?

Social justice. I’m a Northern Californian and grew up during a time when the antipoverty movement was happening in the ’60s and ’70s. It was a wild time. The theological degree helped me become a critical thinker and taught me a lot about deductive reasoning and rights and wrongs. I grew up in an Italian family that was deeply Catholic, so those values of social justice were there as well.

When did you get into the food bank business?

You sort of fall into it. I was working for the San Francisco Council of Churches, and prior to that started something called the San Francisco Emergency Food Box Program, which was basically a pantry.

You also have a musical background. What’s your instrument?

Guitar and voice. Made some albums. I write a lot, sing at funerals and weddings, sing [the national anthem] at a Red Sox game every year. Ninety seconds of fame. It’s the most interesting gig in that you’re on and then you’re off.