By Tim Stuhldreher – OneUnitedLancaster.com
Lancaster County Food Hub is looking forward to welcoming clients next spring to large new welcome and outreach center.
Located on the second floor of the Food Hub’s headquarters at 812 N. Queen St., it will integrate a range of services offered by Food Hub outreach workers and various partner organizations.
Plans to renovate the space, which totals roughly 5,500 square feet, have been in the works for several years. Creating such a center “had always been part of what we were working toward,” Executive Director Paige McFarling said.
The Food Hub prides itself on its relational approach, and on its commitment to being low-barrier: Clients are engaged “where they are,” without preconditions.
“This expansion will give us additional space to be responsive to the needs of the community and grant people the dignity of seeking assistance in one place to fill their basic human needs,” McFarling wrote in an update this past summer.
The core will be a flexible open-plan day center fitted out with tables and chairs. It will be accessed through a new handicap-accessible elevator or via stairs. Along the west side will be some offices for private meetings and a “quiet room.”
On the east side, folding dividers will enclose a storage area. To the south, double doors will open onto an open-air rooftop respite area.
