North Liberty Community Pantry opens doors to new location

Eight months after breaking ground on a new $4 million facility, the North Liberty Community Pantry officially opened the doors to its new location Monday, June 23.

The 10,500-square-foot building at 350 W. Penn St. is nearly four times the size of its former facility at 89 N. Jones Blvd., said Ryan Bobst, executive director.

“We know that the need for food and clothing is greater than it ever has been, and our community continues to grow,” he said. “Being able to have a facility that's four times larger than our previous facility is just so exciting that we can source more items to share with our neighbors who really need them.”

The pantry currently serves 400-450 people a week, Mr. Bobst said, and 150 more families per month than the previous year.

“Those numbers just continue to grow,” he said. “We're seeing new families come and sign up for services every day that we're open because of the state of the economy and the loss of resources to our neighbors,” adding that partner pantries from the surrounding area are facing the same situation.

The only Johnson County food bank that has a clothing pantry as well, NLCP distributed 1,044 items of clothing the first two days after opening the new location. The new facility has a separate room for clothing, three times larger than the previous distribution and clothing area combined.

A storage room for donated clothing items sits adjacent to the room, an upgrade from the machine shed and church meeting room the pantry utilized before. In the warehouse, black storage totes stacked atop one another running the length of the shelving units contain winter coats for the coat drive this winter.

Dignity and efficiency

Just beyond the lobby is the food bank area, organized like a miniature grocery store with aisles containing fresh produce, dry goods, a refrigerator and freezer section.

“That is really a feature that we dreamed up to provide dignity for our neighbors, that when they're shopping, it really feels like a grocery store that they are going (to),” Mr. Bobst said, adding that the arrangement allows volunteers to stock shelves from behind the scenes while clients shop. Not only does the arrangement provide dignity, but it also “provides a lot of efficiency,” he said.

Instead of limiting shopping time to six families at once, the larger space now allows for 10 families, and the three checkout areas streamline the experience as well.

“People are really able to shop a lot faster than they used to,” Mr. Bobst said.

The pantry’s top requested items are fresh produce, eggs, milk and peanut butter, he said, and food is sourced in several ways. Approximately 40% of NLCP’s food is distributed from Table to Table, 30% from HACAP, 20% is purchased wholesale and 10% comes from donations.

“We have seen an increase in support to help meet our needs,” Mr. Bobst said, during a public tour of the building Wednesday.

Just beyond the food bank’s main area sits a spacious warehouse, home to the nonprofit’s new 550-square-foot refrigeration unit – a massive upgrade that dwarfs even the former lobby of its previous location on Jones Boulevard. The expanded refrigerator and freezer space has been a game-changer for NLCP, eliminating the need to stash overflow goods at offsite locations.

“We won't have to rely on our friends at Fareway and Field Day Brewing Company to temporarily store frozen meat for us,” Mr. Bobst said.

The size of the warehouse lends efficiency to the pantry’s operations, as well.

“When we're unloading trucks – a project that used to take 45 minutes for three to five volunteers – is now a five minute project for one volunteer, and then everything is in its home, and then we can just restock the shelves as we need,” he said.

In addition to the warehouse, storage rooms, clothing and food bank, the new facility houses several offices, a volunteer room and private meeting space as well “to do more case management work and connect neighbors to other services they might need,” Mr. Bobst said.

Planting roots where needed

When the pantry began scouting for a new place, it conducted a heat map analysis to see which neighborhoods in North Liberty had the highest service rates, Mr. Bobst said.

“This location puts us in our second highest neighborhood, and the bike trail connects us to the first, highest neighborhood,” he said, adding that the location’s three acres of land “allowed for that larger building to happen.”

The connection to the bike trail makes the pantry a walkable option for residents, which was “very appealing to our neighbors,” Mr. Bobst said.

The three-acre site housing the facility offers ample room for expanded garden plots and even the future addition of a hoop house – paving the way for year-round fresh produce. Thanks to a grant from the Iowa City Noon Rotary Club, the pantry will soon plant 20 fruit trees, laying the groundwork for a small orchard. Plans include a mix of apple, pear, peach, and cherry varieties.

Fresh produce isn’t the only thing the nonprofit will generate – the 207 solar panels on the roof will generate enough energy that the NLCP is hoping to reinvest the savings into more food, Mr. Bobst said.

So far, the pantry has been able to raise $2.7 million in its “Planting New Roots” campaign, with $750,000 left to raise. Community members can support the campaign by making a donation or pledge at www.nlcpantry.org/campaign.

To mark the opening and celebrate its 40th anniversary, NLCP will host a Grand Opening Celebration on Monday, July 14, at 4:00 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.