The White Center Food Bank is now operating in its new building and serving about 5,000 people, its biggest client base ever.

The new one-story building has approximately 3,700 square feet of space and was built in a parking lot on the campus of Public Health-Seattle & King County offices on Southwest 108th Street.

About half of the White Center Food Bank's new building is for food storage, said Rick Jump, executive director. Besides offices, the other half of the new space has a new kitchen for cooking demonstrations, nutrition classes and counseling.

There's an indoor waiting area where people can get in out of the weather. Clients used to have to stand in line outdoors.

A new drive leads to a garage door on the north side of the building where delivery trucks come and go.

The new building is beige and greenish gray with brick-red trim. There's a 30-car parking lot and the site is landscaped.

New walk-in coolers could be installed soon too. The food bank had coolers at its previous location in the former Park Lake Homes but the chill units wore out. The food bank applied to the state of Washington for a grant to buy two new coolers for the new building and Jump is optimistic about their approval.

The White Center Food Bank previously occupied a building in Park Lake Homes that was loaned to the organization for free. Utilities were provided gratis too. However that building was demolished as part of the ongoing transformation of Pake Lake Homes into Greenbridge.

With its own building, the White Center Food Bank must pay the rent and utility bills itself.

"We've had a huge increase in families," Jump said. About 1,100 families rely on the White Center Food Bank. That's a 10 percent to 15 percent increase over last year which Jump says he attributes the increase in gas prices.

The food bank doubled its hours of operation with the move. Now it is open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It's also open from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.

Meanwhile donations to the food bank, which had been in a slump, increased 60 percent this year over last. Jump attributed much of that increase to a $5 million challenge grant from Feinstein Foundation.

Contributions to the White Center Food Bank can be sent to the new office at 10829 Eighth Ave. S.W., Seattle 98146. The phone number is 762-2848.

Tim St. Clair can be reached at 932.0300 or tstclair@robinsonnews.com