Food Finders opening new food pantry Thursday

After more than half a year of vacancy, the former Save-A-Lot building along Greenbush Street will see new life.

Food Finders Food Bank will open their new food pantry this Thursday in the former grocery store's location.

Building along greenbush street will see new life.

Food finders food bank's new food pantry is set to open this week in the former grocery store.

It will take the place of the former pantry located just down the road.

News 18's balint szalavari joins us live from outside the new pantry.

Balint?

According to food finders ceo katy bunder, this is an expansion they've been working on foren y nefood pantry set toe fi the their new location.with food insecurin the rise due to the coronavirus, food finders food bank is expanding their food pantry.

Bunder: "we needed to find a way to distribute food with social social distancing.

We really had to find a larger space."

Thanks to a grant from feeding america, the former save-a-lot in lafayette will serve as food finders' new food pantry.

Ceo katy bunder says the market square shopping center location was exactly what they were looking for.

Bunder: "it's 19,000 square feet.

It already has freezers and coolers.

It was set up to be a grocery store, so it just fits our need perfectly."

According to senior impact director adam meyer, the added square footage will allow food finders to serve more people.

Meyer: "we're for sure going to be able to accept the normal 300 to 400 people that we were seeing before.

But wth this space now, there's a possibility now of serving a lot more on a daily basis."

Meyer says the extra space also allows food finders to offer a larger variety of food.

Meyer: "we're going to have everything from canned goods, canned meats, fresh fruits and vegetables.

We'll have dairy.

We'll have milk and eggs."

With more people expected to visit the new location, bunder said they're keeping safety a priority.

Bunder: "we have room to keep six feet apart.

We've put those shelves for the groceries twelve feet apart."

And she hopes the new atmosphere will encourage those facing hunger to visit the new pantry.

Bunder: "the shopping experience is going to be more akin to a regular shopping, and so we might be able to help people that haven't ft comfortable coming to the pantry before."

Again, the new locatn will open this thursday, october 1st with hours from 1 to 6:30 pm.

An operating hours will be available on our website, wlfi dot com.

Repo lafayette, balint szavari, news 18.