FORESTVILLE - The Neighbor to Neighbor Food Pantry in Forestville recently made a move out of the village of Forestville.
The food pantry which used to be located at the Forestville United Methodist Church on Park street in the village, relocated to the Forestville Wesleyan Church due to space issues.
The Forestville Wesleyan Church is located on Prospect Road in the town of Villenova, 4.8 miles from the center of town.
Article Photos
OBSERVER Photo by Nicole Gugino
The food pantry required more space for a shop through model, which will reduce waste.
The Methodist Church had need of its hall, where the pantry was located in the past, and although the church's parsonage was offered there were problems with the space.
According to Bruce Ellis pastor of the Forestville Wesleyan Church, the parsonage was not handicap accessible and did not provide the wide, open space needed for the pantry.
"We needed a large open space. The parsonage is a house with small rooms," Ellis said.
Ellis explained that the Food Bank is encouraging food pantries to move to a "shop through" model to reduce waste as opposed to the pre-bagged mode the Neighbor to Neighbor pantry was using before.
Ellis said that with this new mode of operation the food pantry will qualify for more grant funding and that volunteers will soon be trained to help clients browse the aisles in the pantry.
The pantry now has rows of none perishable items, vegetables and bread donated from local vendors.
The church also installed a storage shed for additional storage and refrigeration space.
The Forestville Wesleyan Church is located on Prospect Road in the town of Villenova, 4.8 miles from the center of town.
The move out of the village has concerned some community members, but Ellis said that the number of households helped by the pantry has stayed about the same.
"We continue to serve the forestville school district and we will now open our doors to residents in the town of Villenova. Many clients come from outside the village but live in the school district," Ellis said.
He said in the past two weeks about 47 households have visited the food pantry for assistance, which is on schedule for the average of 100 to 120 households the pantry averaged per month at the Methodist church.
"Virtually nothing has changed," Ellis added, saying he has heard no complaints from clients.
Ellis also wanted to notify the community that although the Neighbor to Neighbor food pantry has moved farther away the Food Express truck, which was previously hosted in conjunction with the pantry, made a smaller move to the Forestville Baptist Church.
The Food Express truck delivers thousands of pounds of fresh and packaged food on the first Monday of every month between 11 and 11:30 a.m. There are no income requirements for the Fresh Express truck but you must be a resident of Chautauqua County.
Any questions about the Fresh Express truck call Rev. Mike Stitzel at 965-1010.
For more information on the Neighbor to Neighbor food pantry call the Forestville Wesleyan Church at 965-4306.
