Membership grows for local food source
With the number of people seeking assistance growing every month
San Benito needed a bigger community pantry
– and now they have one.
Membership grows for local food source
With the number of people seeking assistance growing every month San Benito needed a bigger community pantry – and now they have one.
The Community Pantry recently moved into a larger facility and it’s a good thing, since the staff already have an additional 200 recipients to their program since the move.
“We’re looking at a perfect storm of financial problems,” said Mary Anne Hughes, executive director of the Community Pantry.
San Benito County formerly employed cannery workers six months per year. Now that has gone down to about six weeks. Finally, there are a lot of field workers who will be hit hard this year because there is no work for them due to the impact freezing has had on local crops.
Currently 25 percent of the population in San Benito County is living at or below the poverty line. Only 8 percent are receiving help through agencies such as Community Pantry.
A recent study reported that to afford to live in San Benito County a resident has to earn an average wage of $17.95 per hour. The average two-person minimum-wage household earns $13 per hour, which is below the poverty line.
The new building, located at 1133 San Felipe Rd. is a much larger facility than their former location at the Hollister Airport.
The pantry’s previous building was built in the 1920s. The building was a meager 5,500 square-feet. It had single-wall construction and was very old. Volunteers were constantly having to clean it up and worst of all, it was small.
The new location on San Felipe is much larger, twice the size of the original building at 10,000 square-feet; brighter and easier to clean. The drawback is that the pantry owned its former location whereas they are leasing with the option to buy at the new location, so they have to pay rent each month now. For the first year, a donor has agreed to foot the bill for the pantry’s rent.
Since opening their door November 15, the 80 volunteers that help facilitate the pantry’s work have distributed about 1,000 bags of groceries per week – up from 800 bags per week before the move. Over the holidays the number of bags was a little higher – around 1,017 – but that is still only about one-half of the population Hughes said the pantry serves. If all pantry members showed up to get food each week, there would not be enough, Hughes has said previously.
After one-and-a-half years of looking for a new location, Hughes is convinced that Community Pantry found the perfect location.
“This facility provides almost everything we wanted,” Hughes said. “It has adequate space both for now and for later. It is located on the bus route. The bus didn’t previously go out to the airport. Plus it is located next to county services, health and human services and unemployment. It’s also right on the road where it is visible. Visibility was very important.”
When first entering the new building the first notable detail is the big mural behind the front counter with the words “Abundance Shared” inscribed under it. To the left of the counter is also a play area for children who wait for their parents to receive their boxes of food. Shelves of food are located at the front entrance so people can stop in quickly and pick up contributions.
Offices are located along a hallway leading out to the warehouse where community pantry stores all its food. There is currently one cold-storage locker where donated produce from Ag Against Hunger, a nonprofit that collects produce from San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey farmers for food banks, delivers every Wednesday. This spring when Second Harvest replaces all of the coolers at their Watsonville facility, it will donate the old ones to the Community Pantry, according to Hughes. Community Pantry will have four times its current ability to store fresh produce. Right now they can only accept so much from AAH due to storage limitations.
Ultimately Hughes and the other board members would like to make the new building more of a multi-use facility and will look at buying the building.
“We wanted a location where we can stay long-term,” Hughes said. “One of our goals is to qualify as a food bank. We’ve been a pantry for 18 years, but to get a designation as a bank we could qualify for more money and grants from the state and the federal government.”
The difference between a food bank and a pantry is that a food bank is the wholesale arm of the food distribution system for those living in poverty. Other agencies are the retail arm and serve the people directly. Hughes said the pantry would continue to distribute food, but would get more support from both local and out of the area funding groups with the new designation.
To become a member of Community Pantry or to donate food or money, visit www.communitypantry.com or call 637-0340. Visitors are also welcome at the new site, 1133 San Felipe Rd.
Patrick O’Donnell can be reached at po*******@pi**********.com.
