Pam Moore has been at the helm of the food pantry serving the Jim Thorpe area since it served a couple dozen people in the pre-COVID 19 era at Ebenezer Evangelical Congregational Church on Center Avenue.

With the December session serving 160 families, the trend of increasing numbers is evident.

“When I started at my church, we had 23 people,” Moore said. “Then during COVID, we were up to around 90 and we had to carry everything out to them. Since then, we’ve just been gradually going up.”

The rising demand is attributed to various factors, with one significant factor being the escalating cost of food.

“I figured there’s a lot of people who aren’t working at all,” Moore said. “Food prices are going up, so they just don’t have the money to shop as much as they need to.”

Surprisingly, she said, specific food items like cereal and canned corn are facing higher demand and shorter supply.

“We buy primarily from the Second Harvest Food Bank, but I shop at the Jim Thorpe Market when we need more stuff,” Moore said. “And the cheapest box of cereal right now is $3, which, if you’re buying for 160 people, that’s an awful lot of money.”

Despite challenges, the pantry has found a reliable partner in Second Harvest, enabling them to acquire essential items at affordable prices.

“Second Harvest is wonderful,” she said. “Now we got 100 turkeys to give out this month, and we paid $1 a turkey. You can’t beat that.”

However, challenges persist, such as varying supplies of specific items.

“As I tell people who come to the pantry, I can only give them what I get,” Moore said. “And Second Harvest can only give us what they get. I can’t say, ‘I’m going to buy red beets this time.’ Because if they don’t have them, I can’t get them.”

Volunteer support remains crucial to the pantry’s operation, and Moore shared that they are fortunate to have about 40 volunteers on each second Saturday from 9-11 a.m. at Memorial Hall.

“We have shopping carts because you can’t carry everything that we give them in your arms,” Moore said. “We have fellows help them take the carts to their car and put them in the car.”