SPANISH FORT, Alabama - Prodisee Pantry found a permanent home this week just down the street from the donated space where it has been for the past seven years. Executive Director Deann Servos said the new 16,000 square foot facility will open in January, marking the culmination of the pantry’s Building to Meet the Need project.

“We have been cramped, this has been a long time coming,” Servos said Tuesday. “It will allow us to condense our operations and solve storage, function and safety problems while helping to build our capacity.”

Since 2003, the pantry has operated out of the Gathering Place, a building owned by Spanish Fort United Methodist Church in the Prodisee Center on U.S. Highway 31. Servos said she received a notification of intent to sell the Gathering Place in March and was made aware of the warehouse property a short time later. The pantry had also considered building a new 11,000 square foot facility on donated land but abandoned that proposal Monday after the Baldwin County Commission denied a request to install a parking lot. The same day, the mortgage was signed on the warehouse.

The new facility, at the intersection of U.S. Highway 31 and Old Mobile Road, comes with four acres of property. Servos said the first priority would be building a new parking lot capable of accommodating large trucks and the traffic of 200 families per week, but progress was expected to occur rapidly.

“I think we have someone coming to look at the roof this week, and then we have a renovation team coming in here to clean up,” Servos said. “We are still getting all our estimates and bids for the parking lot, but we hope to be debt free by the time we open.”

The renovated warehouse will consist of two sections. At the rear of the building, an 9,000 square foot receiving and storage area will house dry and frozen goods and space to repackage items. A fire wall will separate the storage from a 5,000 square foot multi-purpose room, and 2,000 square feet of offices, reception, bathrooms and an emergency kitchen.

Prodisee Pantry distributes seven tons of food per week to more than 9,000 families each year. The pantry works cooperatively with local churches and Christian Service Center distributing food, but it also hosts regular meetings of the Council on Aging, SNAP and Project Rebound, in addition to offering financial and legal counseling.

Servos said that nearly 40 percent of the pantry’s patrons come from Bay Minette, Stockton, and areas outside the Eastern Shore. “The face of hunger continues to change,” she said. “It was time for us to change too, and this will allow it.”

Donations of food, time and money are welcome at office@prodiseepantry.org or at 251-626-1720.