BLOOMINGTON — A food pantry that feeds 80-110 families every week is asking the Bloomington-Normal community for food donations to avoid a temporary closure.

Clare House, 703 E. Washington St., Bloomington, collects all of the food they distribute to needy families throughout the year during an annual food drive that starts November 1 and ends the day before Thanksgiving.
Because Clare House has been serving more families this year than they have in years past, they are expected to run out of food supplies in early October, weeks before its annual food drive.
“Because our lines have been so long we’re just running out of food,” said Clare House Director Tina Sipula. “I’ve talked to the people at the warehouse where our food is stored and they have told us that we only have six weeks of food left. We’re going to run out of food before the food drive begins and that’s the first time that’s ever happened. That means we would have to close after that until our food drive begins.”
In the 17-year history of its annual food drive, Clare House has never run out of food supplies.
“We’ve never been in this situation before,” said Sipula. “We’ve had this food drive for 17 years. Last year we didn’t quite make our goal (set for the 17th annual food drive) and boy; it’s really showing right now.”
The food pantry goes through two to three pallets of food each week. Each pallet holds around one ton of food.
The temporary closure of Clare House would “drastically” affect several families in the Bloomington-Normal community, said Sipula.
“We take care of a lot of people,” said Sipula. “We feed them with a large sack of groceries twice a week, so that will affect them drastically.”
So they can continue to distribute food to needy families after they run out of food in their warehouse, the food pantry is asking residents to donate non-perishable food items. Residents can bring non-perishable food items to the side door entrance of Clare House between 9-11 a.m. and 7-8 p.m. each Wednesday, and from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday.
Clare House announced its food shortage earlier this month. Since the announcement, several people, including members of St. Luke Union Church in Bloomington, have donated food.
Fresh produce from the Illinois Wesleyan University Peace Garden, a small garden at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Bloomington and from Jacob’s Well Community Church in Normal, has also been donated to the food pantry.
Despite the recent food donations, the food pantry is “still way behind” on the amount of food they need to avoid a temporary closure, said Sipula.
“We’re really kind of nervous,” said Sipula.
According to Sipula, the food pantry has plenty of canned vegetables, but is in need of dry goods such as cereal, macaroni and cheese, dried beans and ramen noodles, and high protein foods, including soups, stews, tuna and peanut butter.
Clare House distributes bags of food at 1 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays. The food pantry has been serving meals to the Bloomington-Normal community for the past 35 years.