A local food pantry happy for holiday help.
Bare cupboards were set to pose a threat to Thanksgiving this week, but some local churches teamed up to make feasts available to some of the poorest in our community. A major donation this morning will help buoy the Church of Hope food pantry at the Hope For a Find thrift shop through the holiday weekend.
“We have never had to turn anyone away here, but we have gotten down to the last can of beans before and it was looking pretty scarce,” said Kathy Spears, Assistant Manager at the thrift shop. “But always something changes and a truck will pull up with a few hundred dollars worth of groceries in it every time we get down that low. We’ve never run out … I think we’re being looked after.”
Just such a truck arrived this morning, when Gail Ortiz and other volunteers from Copper Hill Community Church met Spears at the local Food 4 Less with more than $1,000 to fund a shopping spree. The funds were gathered with cooperation from the congregation at Grace Baptist Church. They proceeded to raid the aisles and gather enough food to last the pantry three to four weeks.
Among the haul were several turkeys, which brings the pantry’s tally to approximately 30 festive fowl for the Thanksgiving holiday. Spears says the number of families visiting the pantry is twice what it was last year.
The Church of Hope pantry is the only full time food pantry in the Santa Clarita Valley and is located in the Hope For a Find thrift shop in the Soledad Shopping Center, near the Canyon Country Post Office. The pantry is open until 6 p.m. tonight and will be closed for Thanksgiving.