SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Wednesday night was like most work nights at Prodisee Pantry in Spanish Fort.

Hadley Jahnke pushed a shopping cart full of non-perishable items down a narrow path in Spanish Fort’s Gathering Place, topping off scores of food boxes intended for the more than 200 clients who will crowd into the building Tuesday seeking assistance.

In the storage room, volunteers raced among the shelves gathering what was needed, and Brandon Kinslow stood in the hallway with friends folding cardboard boxes to hold the staple items.

But there was an unusual energy circulating through the tight space as news of a recent gift passed from volunteer to volunteer.

Grant funding announced earlier this week will enable Prodisee Pantry to purchase about 300 additional tons of food.

This is a minor miracle for an agency struggling to balance increased demand, a still tight economy and growing pains of its own.

The Spanish Fort-based pantry has received $250,000 from the Community Foundation of South Alabama to continue assisting Baldwin County families disrupted and distressed by the 2010 oil spill.

Executive Director Deann Servos said the nonprofit’s annual operating budget has increased “substantially” since the oil spill took aim on Alabama’s Gulf Coast, wreaking havoc on the local economy and its residents.

“This grant will help us offset that increase in families (served) in addition to having some left over to put toward general operating expenses,” she said, noting food, equipment and the general cost of doing business have risen in correlation with higher client volume.

In fact, the emergency food and assistance agency has witnessed a 17 percent increase in families served during the first six months of 2011, compared with the same period one year ago, or about 800 new families who have never sought the pantry’s services.

“We’ve purchased 156 tons of food from the Bay Area Food Bank since January, and that’s a 42 percent increase in what we purchased from them last year during the same January to June window,” Servos said, noting the largest percentage of the nonprofit’s newest clients lost jobs and income from the oil spill either directly or indirectly as the local economy suffered a substantial blow to its tourism and service sectors.

“This is a huge (volume) increase in a short amount of time, and I don’t think people understand the numbers we’re talking about. We are so blessed to receive this amazing grant during such difficult economic times, but we still need our family donations. They are our meat and potatoes, literally,” she said.

One of the more interesting figures, she said, has been a 29 percent year-to-date increase in the number of senior citizens seeking help.

The pantry serves residents across Baldwin County and has helped more than 1,900 new families since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, 2010, sending more than 200 gallons of oil barreling for Alabama’s Gulf Coast.

The pantry’s grant is actually one of three totaling $536,000 the Community Foundation is awarding to local agencies, made possible by a $4 million contribution from the Fund for Gulf Communities, a program of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Lights of Empowerment in south Mobile County will receive $100,400 and Grand Bay’s Lighthouse Academy of Excellence and Achievement will receive $185,641 through the program.

The Community Foundation’s Stephanie Ryan said the Fund for the Gulf Communities was created via an anonymous donation to “enhance the resiliency of diverse communities along the Gulf Coast”  and selects its distribution partners based on their “strong ties to the community-based organizations providing direct services to people in need.”

Pantry volunteer Brenda Hutchison of Spanish Fort said the “tremendous” grant award is a sign that awareness about the organization’s mission is gaining traction.

“It’s recognition of what we’re doing to help our community at the ground level,” she said.

Meanwhile, Servos said the organization’s “Building to Meet the Need” campaign continues to raise the funds needed to “actively work toward a new facility” as the need for services continues to swell.

“We’re growing rapidly, and we need our small donors and every single volunteer to stay involved with our mission because, at its heart, this is a community ministry at all levels,” she said.