BY SARAH STEPHENS – ELMORE AUTAUGA NEWS
PHOTOS BY SARAH STEPHENS AND MONICA HARRISON
The doors to the new Welcome Food Pantry of Millbrook were opened wide last evening, inviting the interested in for an Open House event. Volunteers, who are usually in the background working to feed the hungry, were out front and center. They were eager to talk about what they do at Welcome. Though the building is still in the renovation stage, the excitement among volunteers was obvious.
“There is still a lot of work to be done, but just being able to see what is coming makes me very happy,” one volunteer told the EAN.
Many shared they had come for just a day to volunteer many years ago. However, when they saw the need that exists, they kept showing up afterward. All that we spoke to said it has been one of the biggest blessings for them.
The current location on Main Street has housed Welcome for 30 years, but the explosion in population, and the growing needs of the community, required Welcome to find a new location.
The new location is being renovated and could be in operation as early as June of this year. Until that time, the current Welcome Food Pantry on Main Street will continue to operate as normal.
The new facility will operate on the I-65 service road in a building once used by Izera’s Event Center, a church, and many other things over the years.
Welcome has started a Capital Campaign to help with renovation funding. The entity relies completely on donations to operate and works from a $70,000 budget per year. The area churches, organizations, businesses and individuals have been generous over the years, as well as the County and the City of Millbrook.
An estimated 20-30 new families sign up for services each month. In December of last year, the number of people served was up to almost 6,000.
So, expansion was absolutely necessary, according to Board President Philip L. Harris. He and Executive Director D’Ann Pendley said the future is very exciting, and it will change the way the organization does regular business.
Currently, there is a Food Drop once a month, where clients bring vehicles to the AirNow parking lot to receive larger amounts of food. Each Thursday of the month, clients can come to the Welcome center, and receive food items as well.
In the future, clients will be able to come to the larger center and pick up the food they specifically need for their families.
For the new facility, Pendley said “The Lord has provided this facility. For our volunteers, most who are retired and over 60, it is going to mean a huge blessing that they are not having to offload this by hand each week. We moved over 500,000 pounds of food last year off the backs of seniors. They are going to be extremely grateful for our forklifts and pallet jacks and the ability to just move about. We will have more storage power for fresh produce. Currently, we cannot do that. It will be a constant staple we will always have.”
City Council President Michael Gay attended the open house and is very impressed with what the future will hold.
“The character of a community is judged by how you help the least fortunate among you, especially the hungry. That is where Welcome operates. This has been very important to the city to work with that and the partnership of churches that provide that for our community. They are doing the work that needs to be done. If we can go to bed at night knowing no one is hungry in West Elmore County, that is a good thing.”
Please visit the Welcome website at www.welcomefoodpantry.org
On the website you can make donations, and also sign up to volunteer. We will continue to follow the progress of Welcome, and we encourage groups to sign up to volunteer or set up donations.
