Fallbrook Food Pantry feels squeeze

Margaret and Tim O’Leary

Special to the Village News

The Fallbrook Food Pantry, which marked its 25th anniversary last year, is adept at squeezing and stretching as it serves the region’s needy residents.

Squeezed into a cramped, nondescript location, the nonprofit group has built an outsized reputation by stretching its lean budget and tapping a deep well of volunteers and community support.

“I am amazed at how much this organization does with so little,” said Vi DuPre, treasurer of the group’s board of directors. “It’s unbelievable.”

The group has carved out a key role among the patchwork of nonprofits that scramble for scarce funds and volunteers as they struggle to serve the Fallbrook, De Luz, Rainbow and Bonsall areas.

It provides a crucial service – helping to keep hunger at bay for more than 3,000 qualified families that struggle to make ends meet.

“There’s a huge need,” said Dale Mitchell, board president.

The cash-strapped group serves a sprawling, economically-diverse area with an estimated population of about 50,000 residents.

Mitchell emerged from a throng of about a dozen volunteers in a sweat-stained T-shirt to recently show a pair of visitors around the Pantry’s facility.

The tour provided a welcome break for the retired school superintendent and former Rotary Club president. It ended in a shared office where DuPre, who spent nearly a dozen years as a health care district administrator, printed out financial records and other materials for the visitors.

The Pantry’s sole employee, Executive Director Jennifer Vetch, prepared to close the doors to the rectangular facility as the last clients for the day topped off their grocery sacks and headed to their cars.

Originally named the Fallbrook Community Project, the effort was launched in 1991 by the Fallbrook Ministerial Association. The organization later transitioned to a stand-alone nonprofit, and the name was changed in 2005.

The Pantry is based in a 3,000-square-foot industrial building that is tucked behind two similar structures located at 1042 South Mission Road.

About two-thirds of the Pantry building is devoted to warehouse and food storage functions. Two tiny offices flank a grocery-store setting where members of about 500 households, each averaging 3.5 people, each week pass by well-stocked bins, freezers and refrigerators.

Clients may pick up food once a week. They typically receive enough to feed their family group for two days.

A metal shipping container does double duty as the home of the Pantry’s forklift and the site of nutrition education and health screenings offered by Cal State San Marcos nursing students.

The Pantry expects to raise and spend nearly $233,000 in the current calendar year. Of that, less than $25,000 is spent on wages and staff development. The payroll cost is kept low by the approximately 625 volunteers who logged more than 16,000 hours of service last year.

The volunteers pick up, unload and distribute food, stock shelves, do office work, greet and screen clients, write grant applications, solicit donations and organize fundraisers and special events.

Periodic food drives are conducted. Canned and packaged foods, as well as fresh fruit and vegetables, are donated by individuals, churches, growers, grocery stores, businesses and restaurants.

The Pantry expects to spend $45,000, about 19 percent of its budget, on food purchases and supplies. Another $23,000 will be spent on electricity, phones, trash disposal and other utilities. About 19 percent of the budget –$44,000 – will be spent on rent, building upkeep and other related costs.

The Pantry relies on grants, donations, fundraisers and other means of paying for its operations. Much of its food is purchased in bulk quantities at low cost from the San Diego Food Bank and Feeding San Diego.

The cluster of communities served by the pantry are all unincorporated, thus the Pantry must look to an array of sources for its funding. About 47 percent of this year’s funding – approximately $110,000 –will come from donations from businesses, churches, organizations and individuals.

Nearly $85,000 – about 36 percent of the budget – will come from grants provided by San Diego County, the Fallbrook Regional Health District and other nonprofit groups and public agencies. The Pantry must typically apply for those grants on a year-by-year basis.

The lack of permanent grant funding can lead to annual budget fluctuations.

“It’s always an unknown,” Vetch said.

An annual golf tournament, a Thanksgiving walk and run, concerts and other special events are expected to bring in $38,700, an amount that will represent nearly 17 percent of the Pantry’s income.

For years, Pantry leaders have been scoping out relocation options. Mitchell said the board realized about seven years ago that Pantry operations were being squeezed by its building size and limited parking.

Pantry board members have occasionally drawn on the expertise of local real estate or business experts, but no future direction has been set. The Panty wants to own a building rather than rent, and leaders hope it will be 6,000 to 8,000 square feet in size, Mitchell said.