Convoy of Hope nears finish of $16M food packaging facility

Work on a multimillion-dollar food packaging facility at Convoy of Hope’s west Springfield campus is almost complete. Its construction will allow the nonprofit to begin producing packaged products in-house for the first time in its 32-year history, officials say.

Ethan Forhetz, vice president of public engagement and the nonprofit’s national spokesperson, said the facility’s plan has been in the works for a couple of years. He said the new building will serve as a “game changer for Convoy of Hope.”

Convoy officials say the nonprofit should have occupancy later this month of the 50,000-square-foot facility. It will house several automated manufacturing and packaging lines. The building on the 1 Convoy Drive campus connects via a second-story skywalk to the 230,000-square-foot David & Betty Cribbs World Distribution Center, which opened in 2023, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

“We feed currently 677,000 kids every school day. Our goal is to feed a million kids every school day around the world by 2030,” Forhetz said of the organization’s feeding program across 39 countries. “As we were talking about how we’re going to reach that goal, we realized that we’re going to need to supplement the meals that we give out to the children in our school feeding programs.”

Forhetz said the nonprofit was able to secure donations for the roughly $16 million project, which includes $8 million for construction and another $8 million for equipment and supplies. He declined to disclose donors but said a naming rights donation will be announced at a dedication ceremony expected sometime in the next several weeks.

“We have incredible donors,” he said. “We were able to move into the World Distribution Center completely debt-free. We were able to move into the Global Headquarters and Training Center completely debt-free, and now we’re moving into this completely debt-free, which is just a huge blessing and a testament to the people who donate to Convoy of Hope.”

Q and Co. LLC is general contractor for the new facility project, which is designed by Buxton Kubik Dodd Design Collective. Both companies also served in those roles for the nonprofit’s headquarters and distribution center, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

In addition to its feeding program expansion, Convoy officials also expect the new facility will benefit disaster relief efforts.

Slow rollout
Equipment was yet to be assembled and installed earlier this month when Convoy of Hope officials provided a tour of the food packaging facility to SBJ.

Even after taking occupancy, the nonprofit expects it will take a while to test the equipment and get all processes down before production and packaging begins

“We’ll be phasing our rollout later this summer and into the fall,” said Mike Coble, senior director of food manufacturing. 

Nick Wiersma, chief administration officer, said the rollout also includes bulk product purchasing and certifications, as well as staff and volunteer training in the facility.

“We’d rather slow roll in and get it right before we go full bore,” Wiersma said.

Convoy of Hope currently sources its food from other U.S. suppliers, such as Meals from the Heartland and Feed My Starving Children, Forhetz said.

The new manufacturing lines will combine raw beans and rice with seasoning for meal packaging, officials say.

“For our international program, we have a nutrient- and protein-fortified rice plan, and I was working with our international program nutritionist to make sure that we’re hitting the right nutrients for the kids in our program,” Coble said. “Domestically, we’re going to be focusing on more of like family favorite grocery staples. So, these are the dry goods that you’ll see on a dry goods aisle, like mac and cheese, or pasta, cereal and some other items like that.”

Getting operational
Coble said Convoy will start with one shift of seven employees at the facility. Officials were unsure of a timeline for adding staff beyond the facility’s launch.

“This automated packaging equipment just allows us to meet the demands and scale so much more with our program,” he said, noting a lot more equipment is yet to arrive on-site.

The building was constructed with growth in mind, Coble said.

“We have the floor space here to develop the amount of equipment that we currently have,” he said. “Then part of our master plan even talks about the ability to expand this building in the future if we need to.”

Wiersma said that Convoy likely won’t have the facility fully operational until 2027 as beta testing continues this year. However, the increase in food the organization will be able to distribute upon its launch will make a difference in additional capacity for disaster response efforts. Aside from its Springfield distribution center, the nonprofit has facilities in Atlanta and Sacramento, California.

“As we expand production, if we beta test some things this year and then go more full bore in 2027, the beautiful thing about having those other distribution centers is that we can front load those with resources so that when spring storm season strikes, we’re in front of things,” Wiersma said.

Forhetz said Convoy of Hope responded to 92 disasters worldwide last year, a dip from its record total of 99 in 2024. However, officials say that record is on pace to be broken this year, as the organization has already responded to 30 disasters.