The Community Pantry has been serving far more individuals since
moving to its new location on San Felipe Road
– so many that the organization has entered a fiscal crisis.
The Community Pantry has been serving far more individuals since moving to its new location on San Felipe Road – so many that the organization has entered a fiscal crisis.
“We’ve gotten a lot bigger budget and we’ve grown our income a lot thinking we’d be OK,” said Mary Anne Hughes, Community Pantry’s executive director.
But they aren’t OK. With 60 percent more individuals served since moving into the new location, the pantry is facing a $50,000 deficit by the end of June.
“We need to raise some money fast,” Hughes said.
In 2005 and 2006, the pantry served an average of about 2,300 people per month. In 2007, when the pantry made its move to the San Felipe Road location, that amount increased to 3,726 per month by December.
The pantry served a record 4,054 individuals in January. Meals served increased from 67,895 in December to 91,758 in January, Hughes said.
Hughes said the pantry will have provided $1.5 million worth of food this fiscal year, which runs through June.
Although pantry officials were expecting an increase in service with the move to a larger location, no one is quite sure what caused such a drastic increase.
Franz Schneider, vice chairman of the pantry’s board of directors and a volunteer for the organization, said it has been speculated that a slow economy could be responsible.
Schneider speculated that the tightening of the U.S.-Mexico border could have kept people here who would otherwise go back during the winter.
“We have some people who say, ‘I never expected I’d be here,'” Schneider said.
