YORK, Pa. — A York County food pantry which serves hundreds of families each week must vacate its building by next week.
Dozens of people filed in and out of Harvest of Blessing in York on Tuesday morning, picking up food for the week.
It’s one of the last times they’ll go into the building to do so.
“There are some operational issues that have come to light with Harvest of Blessing that we’re working through," said Jennifer Brillhart, CEO and president of York County Food Bank.
Harvest of Blessing rents the building on Princess Street from the York County Food Bank, which also uses the building to distribute food to the community.
The pantry, which serves approximately 800 families a week, was already looking for a new facility, after being hit with a rent increase it can no longer afford.
But now instead of October, it must vacate by next week.
It comes after a recent inspection revealed problems Brillhart would only describe as "operational issues."
“There are some major renovations that are necessary to do on the building so we’re working through that," she said.
While Harvest of Blessing will halt operations, Brillhart says the community will not go hungry.
Starting Monday, August 5, the York County Food Bank will begin a drive-thru distribution in the building’s parking lot.
“The neighborhood will still be serviced, it’s just going to look a bit different," Brillhart said.
It comes as Brillhart says demand is steadily increasing in this part of the city.
“COVID obviously had a huge impact but now some of the benefits people were receiving during the pandemic have gone away so we’ve seen that increase," she said.
FOX43 asked to speak with the CEO of Harvest of Blessing on Tuesday but was told the organization would not be making any comment at this time.
Distributions will continue as normal for the rest of this week.
Starting next week, drive-thru distributions will take place on Mondays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The York County Food Bank also does a drive-thru distribution on the first and third Tuesday of each month from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 2530 Cape Horn Road, which is only five miles from the Princess Street location.
Brillhart said there is no exact timeline for building renovations to start right now, but she hopes they will start in the near future. They ultimately plan to transform the building into a state-of-the-art food pantry.