Work began this morning on the expansion of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul food bank.

Bauer Excavating of Butler began site preparation on the parking lot at 157 Elm St. that will be the site of a 30-by-60-foot pole building.

“What we are doing now is putting up an addition to the existing building, basically it will be a warehouse for nonperishable items,” said John Gibson, the society's vice president.

“It will allow us to unload trucks quicker and will get us a better price because we are buying more in bulk.”

“We are also going to be putting a large walk-in freezer because the need is just growing,” he said.

Gibson said the expansion is needed because the demands on the food bank were increasing. He said 900 to a 1,000 families “that comes up to 3,100 to 3,500 individuals” use the food bank each month.

Dennis Slupe, the society's business manager said the work could be done by the end of May, depending on the weather, Gibson said.

The estimated $100,000 project will be paid for by grants and donations.