A message from the Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry board
We’re pleased to announce some exciting news. During January and February, the Tri-Area Ministry Food Pantry will be renovating our building and adding additional refrigeration and freezer capacity. These improvements will enable us to provide a more wholesome variety of fresh foods, and increase the number of clients we can serve.
We’ll reconfigure the client area so that we reduce waiting time and accommodate more clients. We will streamline donation intake so that donations flow sequentially through the building from drop-off to pick-up. We’re replacing the residential refrigerators and freezers with walk-in units. This will increase our capacity to store fresh food, reduce spoilage and increase the floor space within the pantry so that we’ll have more room to sort and pack donations and a safer work area for volunteers. We’re also adding a new shed to increase our storage capacity for canned goods.
There will be some minor disruptions to our normal schedule as the construction gets underway, which we wanted you to know about.
We will be closed for clients from Monday, December 23, through Sunday, January 5. During this time, we will still need our regular volunteers to help us get our building ready for the renovation.
When we re-open on Monday, January 6, our permanent new open hours for distribution will be 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and the third Saturday. We ask that volunteers continue to report at the same time (8:00 – 9:00).
We’ll operate temporarily from a portable office and sorting/pack-out space next to our building. The renovation is expected to take eight weeks, and we intend to be operational in our improved building on Monday, March 2.
During the renovation, our donation intake, pack-out and client distribution will be operating in a temporary space. We’re trying our best to plan activities to cause as little interruption as possible, but inevitably there will be some disruption as unexpected glitches come up. We ask for your understanding and flexibility through the process.
During the renovation, and on-going, we ask that volunteers park along South White Street, leaving the on-street parking on East Holding Avenue for our clients.
We’re excited (and a little nervous) about embarking on this adventure. While the transition won’t be easy, the end result will be a dramatically improved experience for our clients – and most importantly we’ll be ready to serve more clients than ever before.
If I can answer any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to any of our Board members or myself directly at michael.burger@triareaministry.com.
On behalf of our Board of Directors, THANK YOU for helping us to #StopHungerFeedHope in our community.
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