After a couple months of renovation work, a Brookville building is now ready for its new use as a food pantry.
We have more from the open house held this afternoon at the Brookville Food Pantry, in a renovated building that used to be an Agway.
“The other one was about as big as the two coolers. Everything was packed. There was no room,” says local pastor’s wife Alice Saxman.
After 20 years, the old building on Sylvania St. sat quiet as groups toured the new pantry in the 100 block of Allegheny Blvd.
“This is just like a mansion compared to that,” says client Donna Rishel.
“We now have a space that is able to welcome people warmly, with dignity, is able to store food adequately,” says Brookville Area Ministerial Association president Nathan Royster.
Royster, the campaign co-chair for the building, says it cost more than $400,000 to buy and renovate, and they have a 15-year loan. Volunteers love the results inside.
“Compared to what I’ve been through in the last 30 years, this is heaven to me,” says founder/manager Ed Pearce.
“It’s great!” says volunteer Linda Barnacastle.
Organizers say they serve 150 to 200 households a week. Now, trucks can back up to the loading dock instead of unloading by hand.
“That will be the check-in office right there, and then they’ll go in and they’ll file through. They won’t have to carry their boxes. They’ll be able to slide their boxes along those rollers,” says Barnacastle.
On social security and with medical bills, one couple says this pantry is a miracle, and so is the new building.
“When the weather was bad, we had to stand out, there were no umbrellas or anything, because there’s just no room — to only get through and get your food — and this way they say you can come in here until your number’s called,” says Rishel.
A huge walk-in fridge and freezer waiting for the past couple years now have a place to go, and the pantry’s founder says that means lots of space for deer meat donated by hunters in fall.
“We’ll pay for the processing and they’ll get the deer and then these elderly people coming through here love that deer meat,” says Pearce.
“It’s a big difference from being down there to moving up here because it’s a lot bigger and we’ve got more places to put stuff,” says truck driver volunteer/client Rusty Murray.
Royster says some Boy Scouts will be helping them move items from the old food pantry, and they will be ready for clients on Thursday. The pantry is open on Thursdays from 10 a.m.-noon and 6:30-8 p.m.
