Coming Soon: More Options for the Community

There are some exciting changes coming with how we will be distributing food at the East County Food Pantry.  

On March 4, 2023, we will give you the option of either:

a) Staying in your car and receiving pre-made bags of food in our drive-thru like we have been doing, or

b) Parking your car, coming inside, and picking out your own groceries.

We hope these changes will provide you more options and give you more of the ability to choose what works best for your household.  Plus, there will probably be less food waste as people can pick the food that they want and will eat.  Also, it will be better for the environment with less gas fumes of running cars and there will be less of a need for us to purchase lots of bags as some people may park their cars and bring their own bags to carry out their groceries.  (But, if you prefer to stay in your car, we are happy to still bring pre-made bags to you.)

Additionally, we will implement some options to improve the waiting-in-line experience.  We have designed a way in which people can get a number in the order in which they arrived and then wait in a variety of places.  They can wait in their parked car, inside our fellowship hall enjoying coffee and pastries, or play in the playground with their children while being notified on their phone that they are next in line.  We will expand our hours and create a way to spread out our supply of specialty foods throughout the morning so that there are still some good choices left for people who may arrive later. 

This will be a work in progress.  So, please be graceful with us when we start to make the transition next month. We will update you with more information as we go.  And, we would like to invite you to a community meeting over Zoom to share more about the transition and receive some of your input.  The meeting will be on Tuesday, February 28 at 7:00 pm.  Here is the ZOOM link – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89191115165

Thank you for being flexible and working with us in serving our community with care, collaboration, dignity, and love.