LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville nonprofit is now able to help more people, thanks to a new tool.

A walk-in refrigerator, made possible in part by an earlier WDRB News story, was installed in Feed Louisville's kitchen about two months ago. 

"It took a very thick layer of stress off my back," said Isaiah Scott, kitchen manager.

Long gone are the days when Scott would struggle to manage donations, stuffing refrigerators to the brim.

"It used to be, 'Okay, let's see what's in fridge one, two, three and four,'" Scott said. "I would have to like, go through every individual thing, separate them into different refrigerators, move things out of refrigerators. It was a process. It took hours."

Now, everything can have a proper space and Feed Louisville can accept more donations.

"We've increased our donations, our food rescue," said co-founder Rhona Kamar. "We're taking in about 10,000 pounds of food a month right now from the community, and that's food that would've gone into the landfill. So, the walk-in made all of that possible."

Kamar notes the timing of this installation has also worked out, with need in the community growing as the cost of living rises.

"We get more and more phone calls every day, and this is not just from our houseless community, but these are people who do have housing but are experiencing food insecurity at this time," Kamar said. "The need is tremendous." 

Kamar said they've recently gotten a grant from their partner Dare to Care to bring in additional, professional-level cold storage, which will help the nonprofit to take in more donations and in turn produce more meals for all those in need.

"[We make] hundreds of meals a week and we can do a lot more," said Kamar. "We are in the process of scaling up how many we do and always hoping to feed more people in our community every day." 

Feed Louisville is thankful for all the community partners helping them get to this point.

"People really see us. It's good recognition," Scott said. "It feels good to know [there are] people out there that want to help and care." 

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