“We have heat, and we don’t have stairs,” said the food pantry’s new director, Lisa Kimpflen, giving a tour of the new space on Tuesday. “It’s fully handicap-accessible now. And we have no mold.”

Over the summer, the former food pantry space had water damage and mold.

“We had critters,” she added. “We had to get out.”

The food pantry hands out food to families from 9 a.m. to noon on Tuesdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Thursdays.

Some of the more than 30 volunteers who helped move the Tupper Lake Community Food Pantry from the basement of the Aaron Maddox Hall to the Holy Ghost Parish Center pose on Friday, Oct. 27. (Provided photo)

On Friday, Oct. 27, between 30 and 40 volunteers spent the day moving the food, shelves, refrigerators and freezers. The last day at old space was Thursday, Oct. 26, and first day in new space was Tuesday, Oct. 31.

“We never missed a day,” Kimpflen said. “We had a gang up here, plus The Wild Center loaned us some of their AmeriCorps kids to come and help with the heavy lifting because most of us are not young. Well, Noah’s kind of young.”

The new food pantry is on the far right end of the parish center, accessed by a door on the outside. Inside, they occupy two rooms.

One room — with non-perishable food on shelves, two refrigerators and two freezers — was abuzz with activity Tuesday morning, with several volunteers filling the order. On hand that day were Noah Tyo, Sherry Bradley, Janet Perth and former food pantry director Laurie Pickering.

“This is where we pack the bags for the orders,” Kimpflen said.

To fill the refrigerators, they go shopping for fresh food every week.

“Save-A-Lot loves us,” Kimpflen said.

In the room next door, Kathy Albert was quietly sitting at a table with order forms, checklists and an index card box in front of her.

“Kathy’s answering the phone today,” Kimpflen said. “When they call us, they place an order.”

Kimpflen explained how the process works.

Families are given an order form to take home, and they can order food twice a month.

“Each time they get three days worth of food, depending on the size of the family,” she said. “And the stuff on the back, if we have it, everybody gets it.”

Quarterly, people can also get condiments and personal care products, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, soap, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, salad dressing and soy sauce.

“And if we have pet food, we give them bags of pet food,” she said.

When the phone rings, Albert answers it.

“For active clients, we have a card file, and she pulls that card out and she re-verifies the information on it to make sure nothing has changed,” Kimpflen said.

Albert fills in the order form and then takes it to the food room next door, where other volunteers fill the orders.

“We give people a time. Kathy tells people when to come,” Kimpflen said. “We get the orders ready, and they go out on those tables in the hallway. And when the client gets here, we have a doorbell. We keep this door locked for security purposes. They ring the bell, and we take the food out and load them up.”

An older chest freezer — “which we affectionately call the coffin” — is filled with frozen turkeys and hams.

“Right now we are offering families of two or more either a turkey or a ham until we run out,” Kimpflen said.

When the food pantry was at the Aaron Maddox Hall, they served about 130 families, but that number is now about 140.

“We’re climbing,” Pickering said.

“Yeah, we’re climbing,” Kimpflen added. “With the additional publicity we’re getting, people are coming out of the woodwork and saying, ‘Oh, gosh, I could use some help.'”

Before the move, the food pantry raised about $5,000 to buy four new freezers and a new refrigerator.

“Now we’re raising money for a generator because there’s no generator in this building,” Kimpflen said.

The new fundraising goal is $25,000. To donate money for the generator or food, or to volunteer, contact the Tupper Lake Community Food Pantry at 518-359-3080.