BOUNTIFUL, Utah — The Bountiful Food Pantry distributes more than two million pounds of food every year.
The pantry, which opened in the 1970s and has been housed in its current facility since 2003, helps feed 64,000 people.
Most of those people, Rebekah Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bountiful Food Pantry, says are in Davis County.
Thursday night, volunteers could be seen keeping busy inside the pantry.
"We pack up deliveries on Tuesdays and Thursdays that we deliver to homebound clients who are not able to come to the pantry," said Michaela Newby, Client Services Evening Supervisor with the Bountiful Food Pantry.
Before serving in her current role, Newby was once a volunteer herself.
In all, the pantry has nine staff members and 250 volunteers.
They make sure those in the community who are in need, don't go without.
"I was on the phone with someone today and they almost broke out in tears telling me how grateful they were for our services, even though we're only a supplemental food pantry times are really hard right now," said Newby.
While food was moving in and out of the pantry on Thursday, it was a much different scene this time last month.
"We were almost completely out of food," said Anderson.
Anderson shared pictures with FOX 13 News, showing bare shelves.
"We were feeding more than double the amount of people we're feeding the same time last year and we had about a quarter of the amount of food, so it was significant," said Anderson.
Now, those shelves are filling up once again.
Anderson says they currently have anywhere from 100,000 to 110,000 pounds of food. She says normally they have 150,000 to 200,000 pounds.
She says the Utah Food Bank doubled the amount of food they were giving the pantry every week.
Anderson also points to the help they received from the community.
"We had businesses, churches, different congregations,, schools, government groups, anything that you can imagine they came together and, and did food drives for us and brought in a lot of food and they really saved us," said Anderson.
Calling it a success story, Anderson adds they would make it past Thanksgiving at the beginning of the month.
Now, with the donations and food that has come in, she says they will be able to make it through the holidays.
"The amount of food we have is going to get us through at least Christmas and possibly the first week of January, so it's not going to get us forever," said Anderson.
While donations have picked up at the food pantry, Anderson says they are still in need of items like Tuna, peanut butter, pasta and basically anything a family and their kids would like to eat.
That will allow volunteers and staff members, like Newby, to continue to provide an important service to the community.
"It's just so rewarding to see that I can play even a small role in just helping them get back on their feet," said Newby.
For more information on how to donate or volunteer at the Bountiful Food Pantry, you can visit their website here.
