Chattanooga Area Food Bank receives unusual loan
Food bank hopes to acquire their own forklift soon
The Chattanooga Area Food Bank recently received a free forklift rental at its new branch location in Northwest Georgia.
The forklift, donated by Barloworld Handling, will allow the food bank's warehouse to be more efficient by stocking more food more quickly, Holly Ashley, development director for the food bank, said.
Ashley said although the gift may seem unusual to some people, it is very exciting for the Georgia branch, which opened in Dalton last October.
“Our warehouse is very much an active, working warehouse,” Ashley said. “We receive some small donations through food drives, but generally the donations we receive are on pallets from trucks.”
As people have become more aware of the existence of the food bank branch, demand has increased, causing the warehouse's need for a forklift to rise as well, Ashley said.
“We've just come up against a wall and realized we can't continue to do this without one,” she said.
In order to save money for food purchases to help the community, the food bank was waiting to have a forklift donated rather than purchase one, Ashley said.
Ricky Nelson, operations manager for Barloworld, said his company decided to donate the forklift for two weeks to help the food bank until they can obtain their own because he understands if the warehouse needs to purchase one, then money that could be used to buy food for the hungry is taken away.
“We are a company who tries to help the community that we work in,” Nelson said. “We've donated lift trucks during the tornadoes. We try to do anything and everything we can because the community we live in gives us our jobs, to some extent. It is about doing what we can and just doing what is right.”
Ashley said oftentimes businesses think if they cannot donate money, then there is not much they can do to help local nonprofits. She said this is not true, especially when it comes to the assortment of items the food bank needs.
“There are lots of other smaller things we need that companies may not realize because most nonprofits don't need these things,” she said.
Some items Ashley is currently looking for include racking systems, pallet jacks and a large dry erase board, which she said will help organize the warehouse and make it more efficient when distributing food.
For individuals looking for suggestions on how to help the local food bank, food is always appreciated, but so is time, Ashley said.
“If there are professionals out there who want to donate their profession's services, we would really welcome that,” she said.
