What is Modesto food pantry’s plan to feed people after selling its site to Gospel Mission?
A food pantry that has been serving area residents for more than 35 years from its headquarters in Modesto’s airport neighborhood is going mobile in an effort to feed more people.
The Food Initiative of Greater Stanislaus has sold its Kerr Avenue building to its neighbor, the Modesto Gospel Mission. The purchase price was $720,000. The mission will use the building to expand some of its services.
The Food Initiative formerly was Interfaith Ministries of Greater Modesto and changed its name in 2020 to better reflect its core mission. CEO Elizabeth Wight said the nonprofit will move from Kerr Avenue to a Janopaul Lane warehouse in south Modesto in early December.
It will continue to serve the airport neighborhood with a truck stopping several times a month to distribute bags of groceries. Low-income people who have housing can pick up food once a month. They get enough food for three to five days.
Wight said about 40% of the people it helps live outside of Modesto. It serves about 3,000 households a month at its Kerr Avenue building.
Going mobile lets the Food Initiative reach people who cannot travel to its Modesto facility, she said.
The Food Initiative will ramp up slowly, but Wight said the plan is that by April, its trucks will make 42 stops each month in the parking lots of churches, schools and other agencies throughout Stanislaus County, including in Modesto, Oakdale, Waterford, Turlock and Patterson.
Wight said the initiative is picking stops that don’t duplicate the work of other food programs.
She said the need for food remains great. Her organization has distributed 93,000 pounds of food per month over the last year from its Kerr Avenue building. That’s not close to the spike the Food Initiative saw during the pandemic but still 50% more food than it was distributing before it.
Single mom stretches her dollars
“Right now, the way food is so expensive, I mean you go to to the store and for $80 you get three bags of food,” said Melly, a single mom of four, about why she was at the Food Initiative on Thursday.
The Modesto resident, who works full time at an Amazon fulfillment center in Tracy, declined to give her last name and said this was her first time at the Food Initiative.
Melly said she heard about it from a friend and co-worker. She said she makes $21 an hour and doesn’t worry about rent because she and her kids live in the house her grandmother left her.
But she still has to stretch her dollars.
“Four kids and three bags of food,” Melly said, “that don’t go long. ... You have a car payment, you have bills, you have lights, gas all that you have to pay, a commute, all that stuff. I don’t know — it’s a lot.” She ended her remarks with a laugh.
The Food Initiative on Thursday was giving out frozen chicken, eggs, fresh fruits and veggies (including apples, grapes, potatoes and carrots), pasta, assorted canned foods including salmon, chocolate cake mix, bagels, quick oats, bags of rice and beans and other staples.
Healthy food in recent years
The food pantry has focused on distributing more healthy fare in recent years. Wight said half of what the initiative gives away are fresh fruits and veggies, eggs, dairy and fresh protein like frozen chicken or ground beef.
She said the initiative follows the American Heart Association’s guidelines for limits on salt, sugar and trans fats on 90% of the rest of the food it gives out, with the remaining 10% made up of “fun foods” like cookies and treats.
The Food Initiative also operates a clothing closet Monday through Thursday at its Kerr Avenue site. She said the plan is to find a temporary home for that before also making it mobile.
It will continue its other programs, including a monthly mobile free farmers market, delivering food to home-bound seniors and its food coalition through which it provides food to other agencies.
Gospel Mission CEO Jason Conway said it is too soon to provide details on the mission’s plans for its new purchase. But he said the mission will use the building to expand some of its homelessness programs to better reflect the changing demographics of homelessness.
Conway said the mission will be ready to release more information in the coming months.
Wight said the Food Initiative is looking for more churches and other partners where it can make stops for its mobile food pantry. Those interested in participating can find an interest form on its website, foodinitiative.org.
This story was originally published October 6, 2023 at 10:23 AM.
