Share Food Program Using $500K in Federal Grant Funds for Roof, Sprinkler Repairs at New Hatfield Warehouse

Tony Di Domizio | North Penn Now•

Often, one must take the bad in doing good.

For instance, the bad news for Montgomery County’s 36 food pantries fighting the need to keep their shelves and refrigerators filled, according to CBS Philadelphia, is the projected 20% increase in people that will need them now to keep their own shelves and refrigerators stocked.

However, the good news is a new warehouse in Hatfield Township purchased by The Share Food Program will bring more food, more efficiently to those pantries, like Souderton’s Keystone Opportunity Center’s food pantry, which feeds about 200 people in 70 families a week.

"Everyone is at least telling me that there's a 20% increase in the number of people that they are serving,” said Keystone Opportunity Center pantry manager Clarice Foster in the CBS report. "Currently, we are serving an average of 55,000 residents in Montgomery County a month."

Then, more bad news: The warehouse, formerly County Electric Supply, at 1111 N Broad Street, needed a new roof and new sprinkler system, per an inspection.

However, good fortune found The Share Food Program: A new $500,000 federal grant awarded to them for upgrades to their new warehouse, per the report.

The Share Food Program bought the building last spring with Covid-relief money according to CBS Philadelphia. Most of food for Keystone Opportunity Center’s pantry, per the article, comes from the program warehouse in Philadelphia.

"In order to move food more efficiently in Montgomery County, we needed the space to do that," said Carla Clanagan, the Montgomery County program director for the Share Food Program, per the report.

Now, the new warehouse, per the report, will start shipments to their families across the county by September.

"We put in orders every Monday and they arrive to us the following Monday," Foster said in the report. "To have more than one delivery a week from Montgomery County Share would be extremely helpful.”