KENNEWICK -- Second Harvest Tri-Cities will be a step closer Tuesday to having a new home.

Executive director Kathye Kilgore will help install a sign at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday in Pasco where the food bank expects its new $1.7 million building to be standing in about seven months.

Second Harvest purchased 2.51 acres for $170,000 from the Port of Pasco. It is next to the electrical substation on Foster Wells Road off Highway 395, north of Pasco.

Weather permitting, construction will start April 1 and be completed by September.

"It's taken longer than I wanted to raise the money," Kilgore said. "We have somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 in the bank now and are planning fundraisers for the balance. But if someone were to walk in the door with a check for the rest, I certainly wouldn't say no."

Much of the cost involved is for refrigeration and freezer storage.

Right now, Second Harvest has a smaller cooler than one you would see at a fast-food restaurant.

"When we've needed a freezer, we've had to rent a truck trailer and park it in front of our building in Kennewick," she said.

"I know there's a lot more perishable product we can take in as donations simply by looking at the farmland around us. We just don't have a place to put it, and many of our 55 local partners don't either," she said.

Second Harvest Tri-Cities distributed 5.5 million pounds of food in 2011.

For more information, or to make a donation, call 585-3924.