Shelves that used to be stocked with canned goods and boxed items are now sitting empty at the Bellevue Food Pantry.
With winter months and the holiday season approaching, the pantry is finding itself in dire need of maintaining supplies.
“I’ve been here about 10 years and this is about as bad as I’ve seen it,” said Rich Debor, interim coordinator. “We are hurting.”
Debor said it’s not unusual for supplies to be a little low coming off summer months, but the pantry is well below the pace of where it had hoped to be.
“You attribute some of that to summer when donations are normally down,” he said. “But it’s going to take weeks or months to recover and get where we need to be.”
There are empty shelves throughout the pantry and the surplus room of items waiting to be placed on shelves is empty and has been “for almost a year,” Debor said.
Bags are filled each day to be distributed to families in Bellevue. Only Bellevue families receive supplies from the pantry, and Debor estimates the pantry helps feed between 700 to 800 people each month.
Debor said there is a long list of items the pantry needs, including dried potatoes, pasta, macaroni and cheese, snacks, toiletries, pork and beans, Hamburger Helper and pasta sauce.
