NourishNC announced Tuesday that the construction of its new 12,000-square-foot facility is now underway.

With the lease of its current space at 601 Greenfield St. ending soon, NourishNC Executive Director Steve McCrossan said the time has come for a larger facility -- being built at 3606 Market St.(ground breaking pictured right) -- to help the organization distribute food more efficiently in their fight against childhood hunger.

“Owning a ‘forever home’ is a part of NourishNC’s promise to guarantee that every hungry child in our community has access to nutritious food now and in perpetuity,” McCrossan said. “Our new home is centrally located for the children we serve, their families, and our army of volunteers. We can’t wait to share this tremendous asset with the community we love.”

According to NourishNC’s website, 1 in 5 children in New Hanover County struggles with hunger and food insecurity, the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

For many children, this means they do not know where, when, or if their next meal is coming.

Throughout the pandemic, NourishNC used the Market Street property to run a COVID-19 food relief drive-thru. Since schools initially closed in March 2020, the nonprofit organization has served over 574,000 meals to children throughout the county.

NourishNC’s new home will triple the size of the organization's fresh and frozen food storage spaces and double the amount of perishable storage. In addition to the expanded storage, the new facility will include a “shopping area” where children and families can choose the foods that best suit their needs.

McCrossan said NourishNC’s new shopping area, which will be staffed by volunteers, provides families with a dignified way to shop together and saves donors money by eliminating waste. It also allows NourishNC to offer more culturally specific food items so that all members of the community have access to the food they most enjoy.

About $1.4 million in funding for the new facility has been raised to date, and NourishNC is now kicking off the public phase of its capital campaign to the additional $1.9 million needed to complete the project.

“We are able to go public with this campaign and break ground because of the support of The Landfall Foundation, nCino, the CJB Foundation and lots of support from generous individuals and families,” McCrossan said.

The new facility is expected to be operational by early 2022, McCrossan said.