Ryan HansenIowa City Press-Citizen
With demand for free food and clothing on the rise, the North Liberty Community Pantry is eyeing an expansion that will more than triple its storage space.
Executive Director Ryan Bobst said that for him, the pantry's staff and volunteers, it's all about serving families "with dignity and respect."
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New home will quadruple space available in current building
The North Liberty City Council recently approved a 10,5000-square-foot preliminary site plan for the food pantry's new home at 350 W. Penn St.
Bobst said the new location will feature 550 square feet of refrigerated storage, a much larger freezer area and about 4,000 square feet of warehouse space.
He said the pantry's current home, which includes the shopping area, staff offices, a reception area, and the current warehouse space, is only about 2,500 square feet.
"To have this entire building, four times, fit into our future warehouse is going to be awesome," Bobst said.
Bobst said the new location will sit adjacent to the CRANDIC Railroad track and will be much more central to portions of the community served by the pantry. Many families rely on a partnership with the North Liberty Transportation Assistance program for free rides to the pantry.
Other staples at the current location will shift to the Penn Street building. That includes an expanded version of the Growing Together Garden, a learning space for families that also provides freshly grown produce.
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Giving residents a 'choice'
Families can shop at North Liberty Community Pantry once a week, operating on what Bobst called the "shopping choice model." In other words, it's just like walking into any other store or supermarket — except it's entirely free.
The pantry tries to stock its five most popular items − bread, milk, eggs, frozen meat and fresh produce, Bobst said. There is no limit to what community members take.
"Families can take what they need," he said. "It's really great to help with that from an equitable standpoint, especially for our larger households, because a limit of one or two dozen eggs for a single person might be enough for the week, but not for a household of 10."
A majority of the pantry's offerings come from donations.
Bobst said the demand for food, especially for grocery delivery, has increased sharply over the past few years.
More than 95% of the families served by the pantry either do not have reliable transportation, are disabled or are elderly and cannot shop, he said. That means the pantry will deliver an estimated 2,500 grocery orders this year.
The pantry also provides a small but fully stocked clothing closet. Most items come from community donations, and the only thing the pantry buys, Bobst said, is new underwear.
But that space is entirely short of both the supply they have and the demand they serve.
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Current space is not large enough to sustain demand
The pantry has no shortage of food options, available clothing and staff capable of assisting families with a range of housing or food-related needs, Bobst said.
But with the rising need for food, the 10-year-old building has run out of storage space.
"I would say probably seven years ago, we outgrew the space from a capacity standpoint," Bobst said.
A few tall shelves store the lion's share of the food, but there is simply not enough space to store all of the food the pantry has and distributes in any given week, Bobst said. Pallets stacked with boxes crowd the aisles around the shelves.
Three standard refrigerators line the walls. Tucked in the back corner, a small freezer stores as much as it can possibly hold.
Bobst said Field Day Brewing and North Liberty's Fareway location have graciously allowed the pantry to use their freezers to store surplus catfish or fish sticks food.
And in rare occasions, the pantry has turned down refrigerated or frozen food.
"We've had to turn away food because it'll spoil long before we can get to a family," Bobst said. "We don't want to be in that position."
Bobst said the pantry is an important resource to residents and Johnson County at large. A February 2024 survey found that almost 85% of respondents said a majority of their groceries come from the food pantry.
"We are no longer a supplemental resource," Bobst said. We are a primary source of food for a majority of families and this year, we're going to serve over 1,000 households."
Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at rhansen@press-citizen.comor on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.
