The Eldred Township supervisors Wednesday evening extended the lease to the West End Food Pantry for another five years.

The food pantry will continue to pay $300 per month in rent. If the food pantry ceases to be a nonprofit venture, then the lease would be re-evaluated. The other caveat is if the township cannot continue to afford the building or the food pantry cannot continue to afford to stay there, then that party has to inform the other party that they will end the lease in 90 days.

The supervisors said that Karena Thek, the director of the food pantry, requested the lease be for five years. She acquired a grant to help cover the expense of three mini-split air conditioning units and would like to know the pantry has a home for several years.

The units were installed recently on the roof of the community center and are a permanent fixture. The pantry plans to maintain them.

Doug Borger of Kunkletown said the rent hasn’t ever covered the cost of the electricity. He thinks the food pantry should pay their share of the electricity.

The supervisors said Thek offered recently to pay two months of the electric bill, but there was an irregularity in it that is being worked out.

Borger said the food pantry runs freezers all year long, so offering to cover two months isn’t enough.

Ann Velopolcek, the secretary for Eldred Township, explained that the township shares the electricity with the community center. There is one meter, so it’s all on one bill. In addition to the irregularities, there have also been some billing problems, she said.

The supervisors said they understand that it isn’t acceptable to have the disparity between the rent and the cost of utilities, but it is also a charitable situation.

In addition to the food pantry, the community center also houses a thrift store, whose proceeds have helped to offset the overhead costs of the center.

“As you know, as everybody in the room knows, we don’t have the thrift store going, so there’s no money being generated from that operation,” said Gary Hoffman, the chairman of the supervisors. “But I don’t know what we can do about that. I know the volunteers want to get back in there really bad.”

The thrift store has been closed because of the pandemic. The volunteers are older people who are in a risk group for serious complications from COVID-19, Velopolcek said in an interview.

“We don’t want anybody to get sick,” she said.