Bronx food pantry struggling to keep food cool and keep up with demand. Here's what it says it needs.
NEW YORK - A food pantry in the Bronx says it is serving more people than ever before, but it's in dire need of basic equipment to run the operation.
Yesenia Delgado spent at least five hours waiting on line for her turn at the Open Hand Foundation food pantry Thursday in Pelham Parkway.
"Today, I got here at 6-o-clock in the morning," said Delgado. "It's just getting bigger now."
The pantry will tell you it's been like this since the pandemic. More people means the pantry needs more food.
"Thursday, we have over 800 people lining up, and Fridays we have 4-or-500 people," said Alexander Nilaj, the founder of Open Hand Foundation.
But more food means more storage is needed.
"The conditions are not the greatest in terms of preserving the freshness of fruits and vegetables," explained Samir Burgaj, the president at Open Hand Foundation.
Open Hand Foundation looking for cooling solutions
The pantry has run out of refrigerators, so nearly everything that gets brought in needs to be given away the same day, before it goes bad. Recent scorching temperatures caused it to lose three to four refrigerators because of overload.
"We have no opportunity to save it in the freezer or refrigerator," said Nilaj.
The pantry says it has to give away 75-85% of all the food it receives, because there's nowhere to adequately store it.
"We have a lot of food that gets wasted on a daily basis, because once it starts decaying and going bad, we cant give it away," said Burgaj.
The pantry also relies on fans to keep items cool. It's now trying to raise money for industrial products, so it doesn't have to rely on household refrigerators to do the job, and it's in search of an AC unit.
Clients are hoping enough donations will help the pantry financially get what it needs. Delgado says she's here every Thursday, and without it, she doesn't know how she would feed her family.
"This place is important, because we all come 'cause we need food, and it's hard to get things in the stores, especially with the prices going up," said Delgado.
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