The new 21,000-square-foot Caring Cupboard building that will include a food pantry, a community space and 12 affordable housing units broke ground on Oct. 24 on East Broad Street, Palmyra.
Caring Cupboard executive director Shila Ulrich said there will also be health and education resources available to those in need.
“Together, we are building more than just a facility — we are building a future,” she said. “A future where no one in our community needs to choose between health care, housing and food. A future where every individual is empowered to thrive. A future where hunger ends.”
This isn’t the Caring Cupboard’s first expansion. It started in 2001 as a cupboard of available food in a Sunday school class and then was expanded into the church basement. In 2006, it moved into its current location at 131 N. Railroad St.
Board chair Terry Lewis said it has once again outgrown its building.
“Our idea of a butler building was quickly replaced with a location that had ample parking, loading docks, community rooms, affordable housing and the list went on,” she said.
The new building will replace an unused baseball field.
Almost 3,000 individuals and over 900 unique households visited the cupboard, according to the 2023 annual report.
LebTown previously reported Caring Cupboard received $250,000 through the Pennsylvania Housing Affordability and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) fund.
In the PHARE application, the organization said it has served roughly 10% of the residents in its service area. However, research shows closer to 14% of county residents are food insecure, so there is room for growth.
Read More: Transformational Palmyra project gets $250K in funding for affordable housing
The affordable housing units will each be about 764 square feet and will include a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and living area.
Ulrich said the goal isn’t for this to be transitional housing, but rather long-term housing for people like veterans relying on disability or senior citizens living on a fixed income.
“It would be a voucher system, so something like a Section 8 voucher or a VASH voucher that would help to subsidize someone’s rent,” she said.
Speakers said there is a large need for affordable housing in the area and thousands are on waitlists.
Ulrich said the 12 units will address “a small sliver of that need,” but the organization is excited to make steps in the right direction.
The project started raising funds in 2021 and has raised $5.5 million of its $7 million goal. (Learn more about donating to the Caring Cupboard here.)
“There is some opportunity here to potentially do this in phases, and we’d really love to be open by this time next year,” Ulrich said. “The food pantry would be the first. That’s the first priority, and then we would move from there.”
The new pantry will also allow people to wait inside rather than lining up outside downtown, which is what currently happens on busy days.
It will keep visitors out of harsh weather and allow them to have more anonymity.
She said they’ll have to handle shifting services to the new location once the new building is ready and functional. Communicating the changes to guests will also be a process.
“Having any disruption to service and getting that work communicated is really difficult among the families we serve, so we try really hard to maintain our hours in a way that makes sense for people,” she said. “We will stay open, we’ll just figure out how to do that in a way that makes sense for everyone.”
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