By Victoria Pera
Herald Intern
The Apostolic Church of Jesus in Altamonte Springs, Fla., reopened doors to their local food pantry on March 6 at 10 a.m. after being destroyed in a fire two years ago.
Despite the hardship of not having a permanent pantry, church pantry leaders have been able to continue feeding the community because of the support and collaboration of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.
Even the morning after the fire, pantry leader Herbert Bouey was determined to host scheduled food distributions to ensure their neighbors could still access good food.
While crews were rebuilding their food pantry, Herbert and Second Harvest persevered and continued to host food distributions at the site.
Bouey said he still remembers the night of the fire very clearly.
"It was very devastating; it was painful and there were many tears," said Bouey. "But we said at that time, that night, our intent was to come back."
Bouey has been a part of the church for 22 years and he said his responsibility as pantry leader entails picking up the food and coordinating around 15-20 volunteers to help distribute.
Bouey said it was essential to do this community outreach at the church because the community's needs keep growing.
"It's important because the need in households is so much greater than even two years ago, when we burned down," said Bouey. "So, it's really something I would say, more needed than it was then.
Maureen Martin is the philanthropy officer at Second Harvest, and she expressed her excitement about the church food pantry's reopening.
"We're excited that the Apostolic Church of Jesus is going to have the opportunity to have food storage and the ability to distribute food more frequently, instead of just through the mobile food distribution," said Martin.
According to Martin, Second Harvest has been distributing food in Central Fla. for over 40 years and they do that through a network of over 870 food pantries, just like this one.
Martin said that the food bank is thrilled to celebrate the pantry's reopening and that it can distribute more food to its neighbors.
"We're seeing that one in eight of our neighbors in Central Fla. do not know where their next meal is going to come from, and that is happening in Seminole County, so we want to make sure that we're getting as much food out as possible, so that our neighbors can thrive," said Martin.
Walking inside the pantry, you will see the renovated spaces, which include a new roof, windows, floors, and food storage equipment. These renovations will allow the pantry to properly store and distribute food more consistently, in addition to the ongoing mobile food distribution schedule.
If in need of food services, visit The Apostolic Church of Jesus at 444 Ford Drive Altamonte Springs, FL 32701.
