History
A Few Words
About Us
The Pantry was organized 35 years ago in association with the Ministerial Alliance. The purpose continues to be serving the needy, disabled, elderly, and more. Prior to the pandemic (April 2020), we served 75-100 families per week. Protocols during Covid forced us to find an alternative site for food distribution and storage.
As one door closed, God opened another door for the Pantry. We began temporary distribution and storage at LifeBridge during the pandemic, and we are still there! Drive thru distribution peaked at almost 400 families per week! Since April 2020 we have distributed over 5 million pounds of food. Effective January 2023, we went back to the basics of interviewing and qualifying clients.
The Pantry purchased 3.4 acres on Old San Felipe Road in Sealy. Plans have been drawn for a 5000 square foot metal building with supporting infrastructure (driveways and parking lot). See the “Future Home” tab for details. We are on the cusp of having approved plans and breaking ground soon. God willing, we hope to be in our new home by year end 2024. Praise God!
Pantry Timeline
In 1997, we moved into our own building on Ward Street. We helped over 1200 families that year, which was a 15% increase over the previous year. The number of people requesting and receiving assistance from the pantry has steadily increased each year since then. Eventually, we had to start thinking about how we might enlarge our building to help with our crowded conditions.
Then, 2020 and the Covid pandemic happened. Like so many others, food pantry operations were severely affected. We could not operate out of our Ward Street building. Our quarters were too close to be safe from Covid. We had to begin a drive-through operation. The Houston Food Bank process also changed to mandate food orders only in full pallet quantities instead of cases. In fact, there was a 5-pallet minimum. There was no space to store whole pallets of food at the Ward Street location.