Foodlink is relocating its satellite location for volunteer operations from the Rochester Riverside Convention Center to a large, empty space in a building on Manitou Road in Gates. That’s because of the possibility the convention center could someday be needed as an emergency field hospital if local conditions warrant.
At this point, that is not being planned, but Monroe County Executive Adam Bello says that having the convention center available will allow the flexibility to do that if there is a need for more bed capacity due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Julia Tedesco is the president and CEO of Foodlink, and she is grateful that the building located on Manitou Road was available.
“It was vacant space we needed, at least 25,000 (square) feet of warehouse space and loading docks attached in order to do this type of work, and so it was just a perfect space that could offer us that,” Tedesco says.
Tedesco says the pandemic and the loss of jobs it has caused has greatly increased the need for emergency food supplies.
“The demand is there, and we’re seeing a lot of new people; individuals who lost their jobs, who’ve been furloughed or laid off because of this public health crisis that are turning to emergency food for the first time to help make ends meet for their families.” Tedsco says that in March, Foodlink distributed two million pounds of food in the region, one of the highest monthly amounts in the 41 years that organization has been around.
An official with the University of Rochester Medical Center says at this point, any move to set up a field hospital at the Riverside Convention Center is likely very precautionary. He says it’s not something the hospital system is expecting to be needed right away, and in fact it might still never be needed at all.
