The Ballard Food Bank, currently located at 7001 24th Ave. N.W., is moving out of its residential location into a new building in Ballard's industrial area south of Market Street.

Nancy McKinney, executive director of the food bank, made the announcement Dec. 9 at the Ballard District Council meeting but could not give the exact address of the new location because the lease has not been signed yet.

The Ballard Food Bank serves approximately 1,100 people from Ballard, Magnolia and Queen Anne per week, and its current space was not suitable for a number of reasons, McKinney said.

The 24th Avenue building is too small, limiting food storage space and forcing patrons to line up outside the building in the rain and cold while waiting to be served, she said.

McKinney said a residential location for the food bank was not ideal anyway.

"We want to get out of the residential area," she said. "It's a bad place for us to be. It really does make my hair gray."

The new location south of Market Street features parking for food bank vans, a waiting room for patrons to get out of the elements and double the space.

The rent on the new building will be twice the food bank's current rent, but the extra space will allow for a freezer for food storage and an office space that could be rented out by a mental health service, McKinney said.

The Ballard Food Bank will not start moving into its new location until the new year, but McKinney said they could use volunteer support in terms of physical labor, skills, supplies and donations.

McKinney also took the opportunity to remind the neighborhood that the Ballard Food Bank, which has been operating in Ballard since the 1960s, is not the reason for the seeming increase in homeless people in Ballard.

She said only about 10 percent of their patrons are homeless, the rest are disabled, elderly or the working poor. The homeless they do serve are largely mellow and not a problem, she said.

McKinney said the Ballard Food Bank will be looking at its mailbox program through which those without a steady address and mailbox can receive mail.

The suspect in the arson attacks in Greenwood in the past months was receiving his mail at the food bank.