Rodney Dickerson, served as vice president of operations at the Montgomery County Food Bank for a year before being asked to lead the organization in April 2013. Since then, the former football player and business major at Northwestern State University has continued to improve operations, increasing volunteer staff as well as the amount of food the food bank collects.

Dickerson heads the food bank in one of the fastest-growing communities in the U.S., where he said that 1 out of every 6 people is considered "food insecure."

"We want to break the cycle of poverty," Dickerson said. "To that end, MCFB must create strategic partnerships with other organizations and companies to address the issues faced by the food insecure."

Dickerson oversaw the move of MCFB in July. Under his leadership, the food bank moved from its old location into a renovated Woodlands area location on I-45 in the Trade Center.

Why did the Food Bank decide to move to The Woodlands area?

It was not a deliberate choice to move from Conroe to The Woodlands. MCFB is always conscientious about being good stewards of our funds from our donors. When the MCFB board of directors looked at the cost of building a new facility from the ground up in Conroe versus refurbishing an existing facility in The Woodlands, the cost difference was something that we could not ignore. We saved $2 million by purchasing and renovating our Woodforest Food Bank Center in the Harpers Landing area.

Our location does not impact who we serve. We are still the food bank of Montgomery County and will continue to focus on the food insecure children, adults and seniors in our community regardless of where we are located.

How does MCFB communicate its needs to the community?

It is an exciting time for MCFB as we begin working on a new branding and marketing plan. We have a quarterly newsletter that we send throughout the county, which talks directly to the needs of our community. We are undergoing a website redesign that will include up-to-date statistics on the needs of the community.

Hunger hits closer to home than we realize. One out of every six individuals in Montgomery County is food insecure. When we look at the food insecurity rate for children in our county, it increases to one out of every four. Montgomery County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States.

With the growing population and increase in industries moving to the area, there is a great need for a workforce to support the community. Often, these jobs are minimum wage or low-wage positions. These incomes are not enough to support a family and people are forced to work multiple jobs. This is who we serve—the working poor.

What will the new facility allow the food bank to do that it otherwise would not be able to do?

We are now able to take larger donations of food products. The space limitations of our warehouse and cold storage of our previous facility forced us to turn away items. We now have the capacity to accept truckloads of fresh produce, meats and dry goods so we can better serve our community. The added benefit of being in an industrial park was also a great perk. It allows our trucks and the trucks of our partners to move easily in and out of our facility.

We created two sort rooms to cater to a large number of volunteers. Our previous location only allowed us to have a maximum of 15 people at a time indoors and approximately the same amount of individuals outside. In the heat of the summer, you can imagine that people are not enthusiastic about volunteering outside.

I believe [the] greatest benefit of our new facility is that it allows us to serve our community in a greater capacity. This 60,000-square-foot facility will allow us to expand our outreach, not only in Montgomery County, but also in three additional counties: Walker, Trinity and San Jacinto, that we will begin serving in 2015.

What volunteer opportunities are there at the food bank?

Our needs change almost daily, but one thing that remains constant is our [need] for assistance. Volunteers can help in our facility by sorting and packaging food to be sent to our partner agencies. They can also assist us in the community at food fairs, where they can directly impact the food insecure. Volunteers can also help us by making deliveries.

Food Bank needs

Canned meats

Peanut butter

Macaroni and cheese

Canned beans

Rice

Canned fruit

Canned vegetables

Dry cereal

Oatmeal

Jelly/jam

Powdered milk

Baby food

One Food For Life Way

Conroe 936-539-6686

www.mcfoodbank.org