New food truck up and running at Roanoke Rescue Mission

New truck picks up food from 74 different food partners every week.

ROANOKE, Va. –   The Roanoke Rescue Mission is making great strides with its new food truck.

Given the thousands of meals the Rescue Mission provides to those in need every year,

Tracy Altizer, chief development officer of the Rescue Mission, believes the box truck is filling a critical need.

“We're serving over 600 meals a day here in our shelters,” Altizer said.

The new truck picks up food from 74 different food partners every week.

 Last year alone, the Rescue Mission picked up 900,000 pounds of donated food from the many food partners.

Driver Rossie Anders, of the Rescue Mission, picked up several thousand pounds on a single run Friday morning.

Besides picking up from the various food donors, the truck is also being used to deliver catering orders of boxed lunches and trays from the mission's 2nd Helpings Cafe.

“We can't stress enough the importance of providing healthy nutritious food to people who are hungry, people staying in our shelter and the 1,200 families enrolled in our Manna program.

Altizer said all proceeds from 2nd Helpings support the ministries of the Rescue Mission, so the truck will increase delivery capacity and income potential.