When you’re feeding 800 households the last thing you want is to throw away food because there’s no room in the fridge.
That’s been a challenge for the Catholic St. Vincent de Paul, St. Germaine food pantry in Prescott Valley until another church offered to donate $26,835 for a walk-in refrigerator freezer.
“We’re ecstatic!,” said Sandy Smith, pantry manager. “I was here at 5:30 this morning because I knew it was going to be ready.”
The food pantry, which serves Prescott Valley and Dewey-Humboldt, has evolved over 30 years. It started as a small room connected to the Catholic parish on Dana Drive, and now operates out of a separate facility on John Court. And while the pantry has some residential cooling units, the usable space became insufficient as the volume of clients continued to grow.
“For years we’ve had to store much of the pantry’s perishable food items in refrigerators and freezers spread out throughout the community of our parish in members’ homes,” said Smith, who has served as the pantry’s manager for 15 years. “Now we can have them on location, which means it will be easier to receive and maintain donations and distribute food.”
The 9- by 15-foot custom combination box refrigerator freezer was purchased for the pantry by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Prescott Valley Stake.
“We were so impressed by the folks at the food pantry and the good work they do,” said Brent Montierth, Prescott Valley Stake President. “They work tirelessly to serve others in our community and we were happy to help. When churches join hands they can lift more and do more.”
The new walk-in unit will also mean more food can be put to good use.
“This will allow us to reduce waste and be more efficient,” said Kritina Mohr, President of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Germaine Conference. “We won’t need to throw away perishable food because there is nowhere to put it where it won’t spoil.”
Mohr provided an example of when the pantry received 100 pounds of peaches from one of their parishioners.
“Without a large refrigerator system they would spoil and we’d have to dump them. That’s really a bad feeling to have to throw food away. It’s terrible. Especially when you see so many people in need,” Mohr said.
Installation of the custom-built US Cooler unit was completed last week by a private contractor.
“This is a high-tech, state-of-the-art walk-in refrigerator freezer,” said Chuck Leon, project manager for the pantry. “It allows us to accept more perishable items that we otherwise did not have room to store and distribute. We can now better serve our clients.”
Volunteers at the pantry refer to the families and individuals they serve as “clients.” These are local residents who suffer from food insecurity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food insecurity as a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.
“We see this too often, especially in this small community,” Mohr said. “There are people in our community who don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”
The new refrigerator freezer will also help the pantry staff and volunteers make better use of local donations.
“We get lots of donations from the local stores, especially Trader Joe’s, Fry’s, Costco, Little Caesars pizza and others. They help so much, we can’t thank them enough,” Mohr said.
The pantry serves clients on an appointment basis, and volunteers are always appreciated.
Residents of Prescott Valley or Dewey-Humboldt in need of food assistance can call 928-899-8889. Appointments are made over the phone from 9 to 11 a.m Monday through Thursday. Home visits are available as well as shopping in the pantry by appointment.
Anyone interested in volunteering at the pantry can call Mohr at 602-717-9505 or email, kritinacrv@gmail.com.
