The Boys and Girls Club of Nampa Announces that Construction Is Complete on New Commercial Kitchen

The Boys & Girls Club of Nampa (BGCN), together with Trammell Crow Company (TCC), a global commercial real estate developer, and ESI Construction announced that construction on the center’s first commercial kitchen has been completed. TCC began the donated construction on the project in December 2022, partnering with the organization to better understand their mission and their needs for serving the local Nampa community.

The mission of BGCN is to enable all young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, BGCN began distributing grab-and-go meals via car windows when local schools were closed, leaving many students without access to lunch. The organization provided up to 550 lunches per day, five days a week; in 2020, the number of distributed lunches and snacks topped 39,000 meals.

“Our experience with distributing meals in response to the pandemic school closures brought to light that we needed a new and greatly improved on-site kitchen at our facility, where we never had a commercial-grade kitchen or appliances,” shared Melissa Gentry, Director of BGCN. “In addition to the work we did in 2020, our need for better equipment and facility enhancements stemmed from unprecedented growth in the number of youth we serve – the number of students we support rose by 80% from 2018 to 2021 and continues to increase.”

TCC, which is developing an industrial project in the city of Nampa (Kings Road Commerce Center), it’s first project in the Boise Market, first got introduced to the BGCN in November 2021 as part of the firm’s community outreach initiative.

“As a boots-on-the-ground developer, we have a responsibility to understand the needs of the local community beyond the property lines of our development projects. Finding the right community partner is important to our team and we are incredibly fortunate to have been connected with Melissa and the Boys & Girls Club of Nampa. Melissa and her team are an incredibly special group and TCC is proud to be involved in an effort that will have a positive impact on their daily operation,” shared Brady Maus of TCC.

Jim Mahoney of TCC added, “Melissa was gracious enough to offer a tour of the BGCN facility and share details of the incredible work they did to ensure that no child went hungry when schools were closed and well after they re-opened. It was evident that the organization needed improved infrastructure to support this important work and we were happy to be trusted with the job.”

Known as Project Lunchbox, TCC embarked on a pursuit to build out space and infrastructure for improved refrigeration and meal preparation equipment for the BGCN’s kitchen. The plans called for a new area for staff and volunteers to prepare meals for the children, as well as a more efficient space for kids to line up and receive meals.

TCC partnered with general contractor ESI Construction to complete the project; ESI donated the needed labor for the job. Other project partners included BSR, which supplied kitchen equipment as part of TCC and CBRE’s donation. In total, $85,000 worth of labor and product was donated to make Project Lunchbox a reality.

Speaking of the project, ESI President Neil Nelson shared, “Our firm’s non-profit foundation, ESI CARES, has a mission to ‘impact every community we touch,’ which aligns well with that of the Boys & Girls Club, which made it easy for us to get behind this project. We were very pleased to see how supportive and committed Trammell Crow was to this cause and in making a difference in the lives of young people. It’s humbling when we can all come together to give back to our community.”

“We are incredibly grateful to TCC for spearheading Project Lunchbox and ESI for providing their GC services, as well as the many other project partners that were involved. We greatly appreciate the cooperation and responsiveness we received from the entire Department of Building Safety at the City of Nampa. The impact that this project has made on our organization and the local community is already being felt at an incredible level. The kids are excited to have hot lunches and we are equally as excited to have a well-built facility that will enable us to continue to scale our operations and serve as many students and families as we can,” added Melissa.

Together with the project partners, BGCN is celebrating the opening of the new kitchen with a ribbon cutting ceremony on February 8, 2023.

Other partners involved in Project Lunchbox included Lea Electric, Electrical Labor & Materials; Buss Mechanical, Plumbing Labor; Ferguson Plumbing Supply, Plumbing Materials; Nampa Floors & Interiors, Flooring Labor & Materials; A-Core Inc, Concrete Saw Cutting; Tile Outlet of Caldwell, Serving; Countertop; and Donahue McNamara Steel, which made a monetary donation for misc. materials.