Feed the Family Pantry, the all-volunteer food and cleaning supplies pantry operating out of the former Walgreens at 4225 Connecticut Avenue, will be there for another two months.
“Terrific news!” pantry volunteer Elisa Braver wrote Friday, August 26th on the Cleveland Park listserv. “UDC (University of the District of Columbia) has extended the time that the Ward 3 food pantry may stay in our current location through October 2022. We are grateful to UDC.”
UDC holds the master lease on 4225 Connecticut and has donated some of the space to Feed the Family Pantry since spring 2021. The pantry’s lease was set to end in July, then was extended to August 31st.
Juanita Gray, UDC’s director of community engagement, told ANC 3F’s July 19th meeting that the university’s facilities team had been working with the pantry to try to find another space.
“We’re not 100 percent that that’s going to happen but we are making a very concerted effort to see what we can do,” she said. The only thing that was definite, Gray said, was that “they cannot stay in that space. We will be leasing it to another vendor.”
Feed the Family Pantry collects donated personal hygiene items, household cleaning supplies, and shelf-stable cans and boxes of food on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., in the alley off Veazey Terrace. It is also in need of sturdy reusable grocery bags. The supplies are distributed Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m.
“This pantry will continue,” Feed the Family volunteer Braver said, “even if we have to move from our current location in Van Ness after October because our food-insecure Ward 3 neighbors need us.”