Red Lion food pantry finds new home after being forced to shut down previous location

A local pop-up food pantry in York County has found a new home after being forced to shut down its previous location.

The Red Lion Little Free Food Pantry is now operating in the parking lot at Living Word Community Church.

Jerry Pilachowski, founder of the Red Lion Little Free Food Pantry, said he was grateful that Living Word let them use their parking lot.

"I attend Living Word, and the pastor reached out to me and told me that he has a place for us to run our food pantry and I was on board," Pilachowski said.

Originally located right off Route 24 near Red Lion, the food pantry operated in a makeshift tent since early April.

More:Red Lion free food pantry helped people during pandemic. It's being forced to shut down

There were multiple complaints made about the food pantry impeding traffic and creating a traffic safety hazard.

That's when Windsor Township informed Pilachowski that he had to shut down the location.

 On July 6, Pilachowski made the move to the parking lot at Living Word, and they were back open on July 8.

"The church isn't too far from where we were originally located, so the move wasn't bad at all," Pilachowski said. "When I found out that I had to shut our previous location down, it did not take long for Living Word to reach out."

Now that the food pantry is in a new location, Pilachowski has made a few changes.

"I bought a 12-by-24-foot shed because we couldn't take the tents with us," he said. "We also have two refrigerators and a freezer so we can store more food that we receive and it can stay fresh longer."

The food pantry continues to serve many people throughout York County.

"Ever since we've moved, we have seen more people come and it's good to see the numbers increasing because we want to help as many people as we can," Pilachowski said. 

Pilachowski has an agreement with Living Word to operate there until Jan. 6, 2021. 

"I was trying to figure out the best time we shut down and I have come to the conclusion that when York County Food Bank stops giving food out of Kmart then we'll probably shut down too," he said. "There just won't be a need if people stop coming."

One thing that has been a challenge for Pilachowski is finding volunteers.

"Now that some of our staff has gone back to work, we have been shorthanded with volunteers, but we have found a way to make everything run smoothly so far," he said. "We're going to continue to serve as many people in the community that we can."