The Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is working hard to help make ends meet for thousands of people, and they’re hoping a big check will go a long way.
Congressman Maxwell Frost stopped by the food bank on Monday to present a $200,000 check to Second Harvest Food Bank to go toward the purchase of a thermal energy storage system.
President and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, Derrick Chubbs, said the new device will help them save energy and more importantly, save money.
“We run that freezer 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Chubbs said. “So by being able to turn it off in the evenings and ultimately save 20% on our energy cost that is going to be significant, especially given the fact that we’re actively seeking ways to procure more food based on the new demand.”
Chubbs said their current power bill sits at around $20,000 per month. He estimates the storage system will help them save around $4,000 dollars a month on energy costs. These savings come as Second Harvest continues to provide meals to people at pandemic levels, which is around 300,000 meals a day.
“Well, a dollar is four meals for us, so that gets us into a very high range when it comes to the number of meals that we’re able to produce,” Chubbs said. “When it’s all said and done, we’re looking at 160,000 meal category.”
The new thermal energy system will be used to help power their massive walk in freezer to store essential items like proteins fruits and veggies. Chief Operations Officer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, Bill Collins said the new tech will give their current cooling system much needed breaks.
“It’s basically a passive system that uses modules that get cool during the day and will keep the refrigerator cool at night and the freezer cool,” Collins said.
Second Harvest said as soon as they receive the funding, they’re ready to order the new thermal energy storage system.