Catholic Charities In the News
Food for Families warehouse battered by Katrina is re-opened
August 14, 2009 - NOLA.com
By The Times-Picayune
Catholic Charities re-opened its Hurricane Katrina-battered Food for Families warehouse in eastern New Orleans this morning, officials announced.
The $3 million, 40,000-square-foot building at 5600 Hayne Boulevard now becomes the main hub for the organization's statewide food-distribution program, which has five smaller warehouses throughout the area.
Food for Families, a program underwritten by the U.S. Agriculture Department, provides a 40-pound box to senior citizens unable to pay for food easily every month, providing home delivery to many of them. The boxes can provide about 20 meals each month and help older people live within their budgets.
Officials say they deliver 27 million pounds of food each year.
The Hayne warehouse's roof was stripped off by Katrina's high winds and heavy rains, officials said, and its walls caved in.
Catholic Charities rebuilt the warehouse from the slab up. During the restoration, the program was run out of storage facilities in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and the surrounding area.
Catholic Charities, which re-opened a smaller warehouse on Townsend Avenue in eastern New Orleans last year after Katrina-related repairs, serves about 65,000 senior citizens in 64 Louisiana parishes each month.
If you are in need or know someone in need, call the Food for Families hotline at 800.522.3333 or visit the Web site above.
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