Out of space, food pantry leaders plan $850,000 building

Since its establishment in 1993, the Cache Community Food Pantry has had one goal: “No one goes to bed hungry.” Honoring that objective, the pantry has served more than 58,000 people.

And now it faces a new challenge.

“We have totally out grown our self,” said pantry director Matt Whitaker. “We don’t have enough shelves to put the food on.”

According to a report by the pantry, the number of individuals served by the organization has doubled in the last three years. The non-denominational, non-government organization, serves an average of 480 families each month, as well as organizations throughout the valley.

Donors have stepped up to meet the growing demand, but Whitaker said there’s simply no space for the amount of food that is now being processed through the pantry.

“Due to a lack of storage space often times frozen or refrigerated foods cannot be accepted,” Whitaker said. “The workers and volunteers cannot even walk inside the walk-in freezers.”

The plan: Tear down the current facility and build from the ground up.

According to Whitaker, the current location was originally built as a warehouse for General Electric and later converted. The new building will be built with the full intent to be used as a food pantry.

The upgrade will provide almost double the storage capacity, improving overall space from 4,500 to 9,000 square feet. The building will also be handicap accessible and feature a more convenient staging area for making donations.

The projected cost for the renovations is slated at $850,000, with the main funding source being donations from the community. Groundbreaking is scheduled to take place this spring.

“The food pantry has been supporting our organization for more than five years,” said Jennifer Reeder, assistant for the 4-H Mentoring: Youth and Families with Promise program. “They have been a huge help to us, we couldn’t do a lot of what we do without their help.”

Kyndall Peterson, Jill Dean, Lauren Handy, Cambria VandeMerwe, Heather Foster, Aaron Griffiths and Paige Sjoblom contributed to this report.