MIC plans food pantry move

With the determination of Moorcroft’s council to eventually move town hall to the Moorcroft Town Center (MTC), which will necessitate moving the food pantry from the building, the Moorcroft Interfaith Community (MIC) has been pursuing an alternative facility for the food stuffs the group maintains and provides to more than 700 people three weeks a month from that location.

Monte Reichenberg, one of the organizers of the pantry, spoke to the governing body last week about the possibility of moving the pantry to new buildings built only feet away from their current location, “We’ve looked at several different areas where we might be able to go, but it seems to us what would work the best is if we could construct something right up there in the playground area.”

Reichenberg shared a design his group has already presented to a foundation that offers funding for this type of effort, “They’re willing to give us some seed money [in a] building grant that’s very hard to find.”

However, as with most of these opportunities, the money comes with conditions. According to Reichenberg, “They want something in writing from the town council guaranteeing that we could either have a long term lease or we could take possession of that property…Our request to the council is that you would give us something in writing…so we could go ahead with the grant request.”

The actual work would be divided into two phases with the first involving constructing a 100’ x 42’ structure, providing more storage as well as providing work space inside for the volunteers, “so we’re not out when it’s 50 below or 100 degrees, also ensuring better food quality. There would be a drain in the floor so it can be washed and cleaned so it could be used for other events, too. It would be something that we could share.”

The two freezers on the south side of the MTC building belonging to the pantry will be moved and the group also plans to purchase two more 12’x24’ cold storage units, “so we would be a little over doubling our storage capacity”, Reichenberg added.

Town Attorney Pat Carpenter had earlier recommended, according to Moorcroft Mayor Ben Glenn, “To sell it to the group with a deed restriction on it so if nothing so that if nothing happens in an x amount of time, it would then revert to the town. He thought that would be the best way to go moving forward. He understands the lease is not probably the best option for everybody because of the changing of the guard all the time.”

The mayor went on to express his willingness to work with the group, “Selling it to the [Interfaith community] at a rate we can all live with…I think that would be the avenue we would try to focus on... I feel this is a great asset to our community and I think we can make it happen. As far as I’m concerned, I’m willing to move forward with it and start the process and see what we have to do to legally make it yours.”

Councilman Dale Petersen voiced his agreement with a pointed reservation, “I want to give you that letter, but in case there’s something that we haven’t thought about yet, if we find out that ‘oops, there is a rule that we haven’t thought about that’s not going to make this possible without XYZ happening first’, that’s my only concern. As far as the letter of fundamental support from the council, I think that’s an easy enough thing to do, but a firm commitment might be a little more tricky.”

Reichenberg explained that the letter has to be delivered to the foundation before October 5, “They need a letter from you saying you’re going to work with us and if it’s going to be a sale, that should satisfy them.”

The Interfaith member spoke candidly to his audience, “We want everyone to be happy with this when we’re done, we don’t want any hard feelings or somebody wishing we had done it a little differently. We’re just trying to move forward as quickly as we can. That would allow us to vacate where we’re at now and open it up so town hall can move up there easier.”

To help with this effort, the mayor offered further assistance with future surveys for the project: “We’ve done a ton of surveying around the town so I don’t think it cost us a lot to have it surveyed off versus you guys starting from scratch. We would ask our engineer and see what it would cost us and I would like to have that because we would need it anyway on our terms.”

The second phase will potentially be of great import to people beyond Crook County, according to Reichenberg, “Our goal eventually, when we get to phase two, is to have enough food supply here for a 90-day emergency food supply for all of northeast Wyoming. This would be kind of a distribution center for this area, too. We would have food here in an emergency that Gillette, Newcastle, Upton – all those towns could come and get supplies for their pantries.”

This idea was first introduced to the group by the Food Bank of Wyoming before that organization ran out of funding, “but it’s still been one of our long-term goals…”

Petersen smiled as council unanimously voted to make the requested missive available, signed by the mayor, to the interfaith community group, “This is going to be a great thing! I can’t imagine that we would ever say no to something like this.”