ST. LOUIS — Many St. Louis area families still find themselves in need of assistance in feeding respective families. Food pantries were overwhelmed during the pandemic and food scarcity remains a menace in many neighborhoods.
Operation Food Search (OFS), which provides food and services to 200,000 residents monthly – a third of whom are children –in 42 Missouri and Illinois counties.
Healthy meals are especially important for expecting and new mothers, according to Kristen Wild president and CEO of Operation Food Search.
“We are working to improve the maternal quality of care through our Fresh Rx: Nourishing Healthy Starts program. Open to anyone experiencing food insecurity during the first two trimesters, Nourishing Healthy Starts makes the case that good nutrition can impact both physical and mental health,” she wrote in a recent Food Bank News commentary.
“Participants receive weekly food and grocery packages, nutrition education and life skills to support healthy eating, and supportive services that connect participants to resources for pregnancy, birth and infant care."
Operation Food Search can now increase programming including NHS through am expansion of its Overland, Mo., headquarters.
The project is being funded by a New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) loan from the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership (STL Partnership).
The $11 million expansion includes the addition of more than 2,000 additional square feet of freezer and cooler space, more warehouse racking for shelf-stable food storage, an expanded hydroponics program, the construction of a teaching kitchen and demonstration garden, improvements to volunteer and staff spaces and a client meeting space.
“The New Markets Tax Credit will provide exciting opportunities for Operation Food Search to expand its reach, serve more of our residents and provide more community engagement,” said County Executive Dr. Sam Page.
“I appreciate the work of the Partnership in making this expansion possible.”
In addition to providing food, OFS offers programs that provide nutrition education, help families prepare healthy meals on a budget, and advocate for policies that address food insecurity.
“We’re grateful for the opportunity to work with STL Partnership on this significant investment in Operation Food Search’s capacity to address hunger across our region,” said Howard Smith, principal at Smith NMTC Associates, LLC, which is the NMTC investor.
“New Markets Tax Credits have the potential to transform communities and the organizations that support their advancement.”
Congress authorized the NMTC program in 2000 to incentivize private investment in economically distressed communities by providing investors with a federal tax credit.
Through the NMTC program, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), which administers the program jointly with the IRS, allocates federal tax credits to certified Community Development Entities (CDEs) like the Heartland Regional Investment Fund (HRIF) of STL Partnership through a competitive application process.
“We’re confident that this New Markets Tax Credit allocation will significantly contribute to the success of OFS’s initiatives,” shared Jeff Colona, new markets tax credits director at STL Partnership.
“The increased capacity and improved facilities made possible by this NMTC loan will strengthen our greater St. Louis community, impacting even more families in the fight against hunger.”
Funding for the loan was made possible by the Heartland Regional Investment Fund (HRIF). The HRIF provides financing to projects in distressed communities through the federal NMTC program as determined by managing members the City of St. Charles, Southwest Illinois Development Authority and STL Partnership.