Dave Hite of the American Rescue Workers stands in front of the walk-in freezer that will be used in the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank’s Hollidaysburg Healthy Hub on Scotch Valley Road. Mirror photo by William Kibler

A month ago, Bellwood Hope Center Co-Director Terri Harpster submitted an order to the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg, but didn’t pay enough attention to the delivery schedule, and ended up with a crew of volunteers on a Monday morning — but no truck from Harrisburg to unload.

Harpster got her delivery a couple days later, and it turned out not to be a big deal.

But if a similar situation should occur a month from now, it will be easier to rectify, because the Harrisburg-based food bank has nearly finished remodeling a building in Hollidaysburg that will serve as a regional hub — and it’s just half an hour away from Bellwood.

Local food pantries having their main food source just down the road is one of several benefits expected to accrue from creation of the Hollidaysburg Healthy Hub through renovation of a former scrapple plant on Brush Mountain Road, according to officials at a news conference Friday.

Deliveries from the hub to local pantries like the Hope Center and to client soup kitchens, shelters, youth programs and other charity food distribution efforts can be made on all five weekdays — more frequently than now from Harrisburg, according to Food Bank CEO Joe Arthur.

Having the hub in this area will enable the Food Bank’s Agricultural Acquisition Team to obtain fresher and thus more healthful produce for the client programs and thus for the needy people they serve, according to Arthur.

The logistics of the hub serving Bedford, Fulton, Blair, Huntingdon, Clearfield, Centre and part of Mifflin County will save the Food Bank about $100,000 a year, according to Arthur.

The Food Bank’s local presence will also raise awareness of food insecurity issues, which could help create additional initiatives to benefit the community, according to Harpster and her sister and co-director, Tracie Ciambotti.

The purchase and renovation of the building is costing the Food Bank $1.7 million, Arthur said.

The organization is paying for the project with a $1 million grant from the Ferris Foundation, plus federal and state grants, Arthur said.

The American Rescue Workers was a tenant of the previous owner of the building on Scotch Valley Road and is now a tenant of the Food Bank.

The Rescue Workers have continued to operate their pantry as the renovation progressed.

On Friday, the Food Bank launched the public segment of a campaign to raise $1 million to cover operating expenses for the new hub over the next three years.

It is expected to distribute food to cover approximately 28 million meals during that period, Arthur said.

The area and the nation as a whole are in “a hunger crisis,” Arthur said.

Currently, the situation is no better than it was at the height of the pandemic, he said.

In central Pennsylvania, one in 10 people struggle to get enough food, including one in six children, he said.

At least one business representative at the news conference made a pledge to the fundraising campaign.

The Food Bank has been working with businesses on “lead” gifts in recent months, said campaign director Craig Harley.

Contributions toward the campaign can be made via the Food Bank website, starting sometime in the current week, according to Harley.