CLEVELAND — Since April 2020 the Muni Lot has served as a drive thru food distribution location for the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.
"Here, it's a good thing because its free for the community," said Barbara Margerum who was in line for the food distribution.
The organization serves about 2,600 cars each Thursday, handing out over 120,000 pounds in perishable food.
"The need is still great, we just finished up our fiscal year end of September, we served over 400,000 people last year, it's one of the busiest years we’ve ever had in the history of the food bank," said Karen Pozna, Greater Cleveland Foodbank director of communications.
But the Muni Lot program will end next month.
"I don't think anybody imagined that we would be here three-and-a-half years later, it was meant to be a short-term solution but now you know we are ready to transition out of the Muni Lot," Pozna said.
Pozna said it was always meant to be temporary as a response to the pandemic.
And now with all of the food bank's program partners fully back in action and a brand new community resource center up and running, it's time to transition out.
"The scale of this is extraordinary and the impact is deep and it will be hard to replace, but were doing everything we can to let people know what their options are once this program goes away," volunteer Joel Fox said.
The program may be going away but the food bank is directing those in need to it's free healthy choice market, with more options to choose from instead of a pre-picked box with certain items. Calling it a more convenient option than waiting in line for hours.
"And there you go in and you shop for what you want what you need," Fox said.
Some volunteers like Fox said they'll miss the excitement of the large scale operation.
"I've made a number of very good friends among the volunteers here and there are people in the cars who I see every week and its so gratifying to get that big hello and they're always so grateful for the work that we do," Fox said.
The last day for the Muni Lot distribution is December 21st.
If you still prefer a drive-thru style pantry you can contact the Greater Cleveland Food Bank's help center at (216) 738-2067 or visit the organization's website.
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