The mission of Blessings of Hope is to end world hunger, and the nonprofit organization just took a step closer to that goal. The purchase of a 52,000-square-foot facility in Elizabethtown, the former home of Darrenkamp's Market, will allow Blessings of Hope to expand its reach and impact more lives in its goal of becoming a "bridge of opportunity" to move people out of poverty.

As CEO David Lapp explained, the new location will fill a need for the organization of getting the most from the food donations it receives. "We'd been wanting to get into food processing for a while and into dehydration," he stated. "This will allow us to use bigger amounts of fresh produce and reduce waste." Dehydration will also make it easier for Blessings of Hope to ship food, both locally and internationally. The organization will also begin dehydrating food on a smaller scale at its East Petersburg location on Enterprise Court later this year.

Founded in 2006, Blessings of Hope started in a three-car garage in Ephrata. Aaron Fisher, the organization's executive director, noticed large corporations were willing to donate semi-truckloads of food, but most food banks could not handle that amount of donations. After planning and strategizing for four years, while also distributing small volumes of food, the organization moved into a 1,500-square-foot warehouse, committing to packing seven banana boxes of food weekly to send to a local pastor for distribution. In 2011, the organization filled its first semi-truckload of food and shipped it to a Native American reservation in Minnesota. As the organization grew over the years, it purchased a 44,000-square-foot warehouse in Leola and started its first satellite location in Kentucky.

"Our mission is to take food that large corporations are getting rid of and make it available to food pantries, outreach groups, nonprofits and others who need it, sharing the love of Jesus while giving out food," Lapp stated. The organization delivers within a 200-mile radius of central Pennsylvania, as well as to organizations in Kentucky and Tennessee and some overseas locations. "We provided food to help with the war effort in Ukraine," Lapp remarked. "We've shipped to Jordan, Iraq and Haiti." With the addition of food dehydration capabilities, the organization hopes to expand its reach even farther, he noted.

Blessings of Hope receives food from more than 200 sources and serves approximately 70,000 meals a day. The organization has more than 700 partner ministries that receive food, with almost half of its operating revenue generated by these partners.

To serve its partner ministries, Blessings of Hope operates Ministry Selection Centers where items can be selected for each nonprofit ministry. The Elizabethtown location will be the second Ministry Selection Center in Pennsylvania, joining the current location in Lancaster city.

Blessings of Hope staff members are in the process of settling the sale of the Elizabethtown location, and then the organization plans to complete several months of renovations before a tentative summer or early fall of 2023 opening.

For more information on Blessings of Hope, visit https://blessingsofhope.com.