Community Pantry looks to expand services, space, but building
spiked by moratorium
HOLLISTER
– After months of planning a move to a new, improved warehouse,
Community Pantry’s plans have been demolished by the Hollister
sewer moratorium.
Community Pantry looks to expand services, space, but building spiked by moratorium
HOLLISTER – After months of planning a move to a new, improved warehouse, Community Pantry’s plans have been demolished by the Hollister sewer moratorium.
Executive Director Mary Anne Hughes searched for a new location for the San Benito county food bank for six months before settling on a 10,000 square foot warehouse behind the cannery on Hazel Street.
“We are so far out here [now] people can’t always get here and if they work during the Wednesday distribution, they can’t get there either,” she said.
Community Pantry’s current warehouse and office is located on Airport Drive on the outskirts of town. The 4,000-square-feet warehouse is half the size Hughes and other pantry staff need to service the community.
“We know that we aren’t reaching a lot of people in our area,” Hughes said. “If we move downtown we will be able to help more people so we need more food to service them all.”
When Hughes discovered the Hazel Street building it looked like a perfect match for the Pantry which needs a space with a large warehouse, offices, a parking lot and an area to wash and clean produce. Hughes had been working with the city and the owner of the building for an expected August move in since March. At first glance, the building seemed to have water and sewer capabilities.
“When we originally looked at the building, there was water there,” Hughes said. “We made the assumption there were sewers there also.”
On closer inspection, it turned out that the water was coming from the building next door. As the buildings are on two separate pieces of property, the sewer moratorium shuts down the possibility of a new sewer hook-up for the proposed Community Pantry site.
Hughes and the Pantry staff are searching again for another building closer to downtown that will meet their needs. They have some funding from the Redevelopment Agency, but need a building that has many of the features they are looking for already built in since they can’t afford an expensive remodel. One of their main goals is to find a place that is centrally located near downtown Hollister and is 8,000-10,000 square feet.
The pantry’s main food distribution is on Wednesday and they gather with thousand pounds of food and dozens of volunteers in Veteran’s Park on Memorial Drive. But the outdoor venue leaves much to be desired, especially in hot summer months when the fresh produce begins to wilt from being outdoors for hours.
For pantry members who can’t make the Wednesday distribution, they struggle to get to the warehouse for other pick up times at its current location on the outskirts of town.
The small size of the warehouse limits the amount of food, especially fresh produce that the Pantry can accept at one time. Ag Against Hunger, a local nonprofit that distributes fresh produce to food banks in San Benito, Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. But as much as two-thirds of the locally grown and donated produce went to food banks outside of the tri-county area in California or other nearby states because facilities didn’t have room to take it in 2005.
“We can take as much as the grower has to give,” said Abby Taylor, a spokesperson for AAH, in an April interview. “But many facilities can’t hold that much so they can’t take so much of it…we offer to all our local food banks, but will definitely get it to another food bank.”
As the pantry continues its search for a new building, staff continue their focus on summer food drives. In early June, they had a “Fill the truck” event where local businesses placed food bins for donations around their buildings.
Milgard Windows, always an avid participant in food drives, collected 1,616 pounds of food during the recent drive, adding to the 2,127 total collected. Milgard also supports employees volunteering time at the Wednesday afternoon food distributions at Memorial Park.
“The company is so community-minded,” Hughes said.
Out of 20 businesses that participated in the drive, some of the top collectors included Bianchi, Lorincz Huey Hudson & Co, LLP, Marcus Building Systems, Art’s Tire Service, Safety Storage and B & R Farms, among others.
The summer donations are helpful as Community Pantry launched a special summer program for children who are without free lunches during the season. With monetary donations of $2,000 from Fishes and Loaves and $1,500 from individuals, they are giving out a “kids” bag every other week with snacks and sandwich fixings just for children.
“I learned that 54 percent of the kids in the Hollister School District qualify for reduced lunches,” Hughes said. “Having to feed kids during the summer can really stretch a family whose budget is already stretched.”
Community Pantry will be working with Safeway Foods during July for an additional summer food drive. For more information on the food drive or to offer information on a possible building site, visit www.communitypantry.com or call 831-637-0340.
