A car slammed into a typically busy food pantry in Fairfield last Thursday and smashed out the front window, door and wall.
Now, the pantry can't help people in need, but the manager said they are trying to reopen quickly.
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It has been no easy process for the Fairfield Food Pantry, as the front is all boarded up with closed signs posted.
"The front wall, window and door are just completely gone," Manager Wayne Patten said.
Patten said in 21 years of operation, he's never seen such destruction happen so fast.
"Like a speedway, if you think of your car revving at its highest, that's what it sounded like," he said.
Patten said he was stunned when he heard the Toyota Camry come crashing into the building on Magie Avenue.
The car smashed through the front window, wall and door, and plowed through tables and counters.
"Thank God it was right at closing time because we did not have a line," Patten said.
He said the tires kept spinning, the building filled with smoke and the woman behind the wheel was crying, pinned inside the sedan.
He said she was OK and thankfully, so was everyone else inside the pantry.
But the operation itself is not.
Inside the pantry looks like the day of the crash and donations can't come in or go out as usual for those in need.
"We're here to serve our community and right now we're not able to do that," Patten said.
He said he and the volunteers are determined to reopen.
They're preparing to use a back room in the meantime, so the nearly 300 families who depend on the pantry don't go without.
"They count on us and we need to get up and running as soon as possible," Patten said.
Patten said he doesn't hold any grudge about what has happened and he hopes the woman in the car will return for help if she needs it.
According to an accident report, the woman was cited on the scene.
Patten said they are working with the pantry's insurance company to get the place cleaned up and assessed.
He hopes to reopen in some form by early next week.
The manager said people looking for another nearby pantry can find a list at SharedHarvest.org.
