10/29/2010
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) will begin moving its Food Distribution program in December to a new, permanent home in Jackson County.
“This is a facility the state has needed for some time,” said Commissioner of Agriculture Gus R. Douglass. “It’s a newer warehouse with a better location than the one we currently rent, and moving will save the state a great deal of money over time. We expect to be operational by January 1, 2011.”
The current facility is located on the corner of Bullitt Street and Piedmont Road in Charleston. Tractor-trailer trucks must block a lane of traffic on Piedmont while unloading at the warehouse dock.
The new facility is just off the Ripley exit and served as a Shoney’s warehouse in the past. The Ripley facility was built in 1981 and includes six acres of property. The Charleston warehouse went up in the early 1900s and was expanded in the 1920s and later in the 1950s.
WVDA purchased the Ripley warehouse for $915,000. Rent at the Charleston facility was $23,000 a month. WVDA projects that purchasing the new facility will save the state $3.2 million over the next 20 years compared to the cost of continuing to rent the current facility.
The Food Distribution Section receives food purchased by the federal government and delivers it primarily to county school systems throughout the state with its fleet of four tractor-trailers and one box truck.
School programs account for approximately 400 tractor-trailer loads of food – some 350,000 cases each year. During the school year, counties receive shipments roughly every two weeks.
Besides school programs, warehoused food can also be used during public disasters such as floods.
“The entities we serve rely on these shipments because most of them are very limited in the amount of food warehouse space they have,” Douglass said. “Although the program is going through a lot of changes, the transition for our customers should be seamless,” she added.
Contact Information
Gus R. Douglass
(304) 558-3200