The Carson Valley Community Food Closet is one of the many organizations who 2 News partners with during the annual Share Your Christmas Drive-by Food Drive.
On Monday, the nonprofit will open a new 10,000 square foot distribution center in Gardnerville.
Donors helped to pay for the nearly $1.5 million dollar facility.
Linda Espicha has been a monthly visitor to the food closet for more than 3 years now.
“It's always good wholesome food and it lasts you,” says Espicha.
In recent years, the food closet has seen a decline in its clients who've been able to find jobs.
However, seniors like Espicha who are on a fixed income, are using the food closet more frequently as housing costs continue to climb.
The food closet is one place Espicha says she can always rely on to receive some help.
“I would be without food for half the month I would think,” says Espicha.
Despite how much the food closet provides assistance to her, the organization itself has been dealing with growing pains.
Fortunately that's all about to change, as the nonprofit is now moving into its larger facility that's been more than five years in the making.
“A larger lobby space that gets our clients in out of the weather, they can come inside now and wait for their food, it provides our clients access to restrooms, which they didn't have before,” says Sarah Sanchez, director of the Carson Valley Community Food Closet. “They'd have to go down to the park to use the bathroom while they were waiting.”
The building also houses a kitchen where clients can get to know each other and learn how to cook.
There's also a much larger food storage area, which will eliminate the food closet's need for a storage unit.
This means that the thousands of pounds worth of donations that the food closet gets during the Share Your Christmas Drive-by Food Drive and the rest of the year can now sit under one roof.
“That usually takes us through the end of summer, early fall and it's about fall that we start to see a decline in some of our staples like canned fruits and vegetables,” says Sanchez.
Sanchez says despite the nonprofit having plenty of food donations to get them through summer, they can still use some help.
Since their operation costs are about to go up in the new facility, monetary donations are needed.
If you’d like to help, you can go here: http://www.thefoodcloset.org/
