The Wright City Community Food pantry has found a new home after being displaced from its previous location.

Volunteers from the community last week helped move shelving, freezers, food and other supplies into the building at 217 E. First Street North, just east of the StLouisianaQ restaurant. The pantry hopes to start meeting clients at the new location on Nov. 14, said Joe Purl, the head of Wright City Community Food Pantry.

“We’re excited. It’s a great location, still in the heart of Wright City,” Purl said. “We see a lot of potential there. We feel like God has really set us up well. ... A lot of partnerships have really brought it together to make it happen.”

At 2,300 square feet, the building will provide a much-expanded space for the food pantry, which formerly operated out of a modular building outside Wright City Church of the Nazarene. The new location has an open interior and a garage door that faces directly onto First Street North, making deliveries easier to bring in, and is also more handicap accessible from the parking lot, Purl said.

Having already taken down a wall, repainted and moved everything in, Purl said operators still need to get the pantry organized and have an electrician install  additional power outlets for refrigerators and freezers.

Food pantry volunteer Tim Bohler was among a dozen community members who helped with the move into the new location on Oct. 31. 

“This is great. It’s a lot bigger than what we were working out of,” said Bohler. “This is a lot nicer. We’re probably going to have about twice as much shelving.”

Volunteer Sharla Schroeder said a call in September to help move pantry supplies into temporary storage, was actually what got her to start volunteering with the food pantry. She said she’ll stay on at the new location.

“It means a lot. There’s families in town that need help,” Schroeder said. “We have lots of low-income housing here that needs all the help it can get. The more people you have help, the better.”

The opportunity for the new food pantry location had eluded Wright City organizers for many months. Everything from the former location was put into temporary storage in September when the Church of the Nazarene sold its modular trailers.

Purl said he wondered what the solution for the pantry would be, until local businessman and city alderman Ramiz Hakim offered to purchase the vacant building on First Street North and lease most of the space to the food pantry. Property records show Hakim completed the purchase in mid-October.

“I’ve been volunteering at the pantry since it first opened. I think it’s important, because it’s helping my neighbors,” Hakim told The Record. “So when the opportunity came up for a perfect building to move the food pantry to, I spoke with my wife, and we decided it was the right thing to do.”

Purl said Hakim has also been very gracious in establishing a rental price that would be affordable for the nonprofit. Still, Purl said the Wright City food pantry will have to develop new sources of financial support to cover the cost of rent and utilities that it didn’t have to deal with before. He said developing opportunities for regular giving, community partnerships and annual fundraising will be an important objective going forward.