Athens Food Pantry moves to bigger space - WAND

Athens Food Pantry moves to bigger space - WAND

ATHENS, Ill. (WAND) – On Wednesday the Athens Food Pantry moved from downtown to their new locations off Route 29.

The Athens Food Pantry has served the Athens community for nearly 30 years. They started in a church basement, then they moved to the basement of a laundry mat. Their more recent home is right off Main Street. Holly Henning-Buhr one of the food pantry board members says, the Main Street site was just too small. They out grew the space.

The food panty says they serve nearly 75 families, so a new place was ideal. After many donations and help from the community the pantry was able to move to a bigger space. Henning-Buhr says the old place was 1,200 square foot. The new building is over 4,000 square feet. Henning-Buhr explains, “we have room now and we can move freely.”

Dozens of community members helped the pantry move. Henning-Buhr says they had men from the local Lions Club, FFA students and even some local farmers.

Mike Butler is the advisor for the Athens FFA Chapter and he says, “This is a way for the students to give back. Taking opportunities like this out of the school day gives the kids a chance to invest in their community and it’s something that they can’t learn in the classroom.”

Henning-Buhr explains that no matter what she can always count on the Athens FFA Chapter to help in the food pantry. She said, “The sign you pass as you come into town says, “Athens is a community that cares”, that’s very true.”