Food pantry will move next week, mostly - Muscatine Journal

Food pantry will move next week, mostly - Muscatine Journal

MUSCATINE — The food pantry is moving, but an overlap in providing a specific service means part of its presence may stay in the Community Services Building.

“What happens when we move,” President of the Muscatine Food Pantry Board Nora Dwyer asked Muscatine County Board of Supervisors during its Monday meeting.

“All of that stuff is over somewhere else so, if it is across the street does that mean we’ve got volunteers who have to bring it back and forth between the two?”

Food pantry volunteers and its supervisor are responsible for ordering supplies for and packing emergency bags for Muscatine residents in crisis. The supplies, such as nonperishable food, personal hygiene items and laundry detergent are stored in the loading dock area of the Community Services Building where the food pantry will soon be moving from.

Dwyer said the food pantry and the county board have had a great relationship and have cooperated for a long time by providing the emergency bags to residents.

“The whole point is to provide people that safety net so that they aren’t — if they don’t have that and it makes it more difficult, how are we serving our residents,” she asked.

The overlap comes from the county paying a certain amount each month through the community services budget to cover the costs of the food and nonfood items in the emergency bags.

Community Services Director Kathie Anderson-Noel said community services distributes roughly 30 bags per month, based on family size and eligibility. The food pantry staff orders the food and supplies for the bags and community services gets the bill. Anderson-Noel said community services will pay toward the bill with the yearly budget cap set at $2,500.

Dwyer said the bags are readily available now for community services staff. She said when staff are working with clients they can access the bags quickly from the loading dock area of the Community Services Building to get them the items they need. With the food pantry move, the question is: what is the most efficient way to get the emergency bags made and handed out to those that need them?

Dwyer suggested storing items to make the bags in the Community Service Building and sending volunteers over to assemble them. The bags would then be stored in the building. Anderson-Noel said on average there are about 12-15 bags shelved, waiting for clients.

Supervisor Jeff Sorensen suggested a voucher system for clients collecting the bags and said coordinating volunteers in both locations sounded like a challenge.

The issue with the voucher system, Dwyer said, is the food pantry isn't open all the time. Its hours starting Oct. 2 will be 7:30-10:30 a.m. Tuesday-Thursday.

Supervisor Scott Sauer said, "I’m clear on the process but I’m not clear in my head exactly what my thought is on this. I’d have to look at this."

Dwyer also mentioned the reason the food pantry is moving, and although she is excited to have the new space in MCSA, there are still some unanswered questions.

"Many people have asked me what’s — what is the intention? What is the space going to be used for? Why are they pushing you out? So, I think that’s one thing that hasn’t been answered," she said. "And that’s not my responsibility to answer it. All I’m trying to do is meet the request that you all have asked us to do; is to find a new location for whatever reason you don’t want us there. We’re trying to make that happen."

Sorensen responded by saying the food pantry may have been started without a long-term plan, and it's only grown. He expressed that the growth was a great success for the food pantry, but "its really not conducive to that office space."

"Things have been changing over time, you know, and I don’t know what the right answer is," he said.

"We’re really going to make the best of it, but I think there are still of few pieces of it that we’re trying to work out and if you can give us just a little flexibility making sure we get it done," Dwyer said.

Supervisor Mather also shared his thoughts on the success of the food pantry and said the new facilities were encouraging. He said they were all in the business of helping people.

"I’m sure we can figure out what we need to to make sure that mission gets fulfilled and ease any transitional pain you may have," Mather said.