Pooler’s Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry began in the garage of Christ Presbyterian Church in January 2009 by a member of the congregation. For the last 15 years, the organization’s volunteers have been serving more than 200 people a month.
“We have homeless come with carts, we have 15 families of walkers that come from different areas around here, disabled veterans…,” said Volunteer Coordinator Bonny O’Leary. “There’s a big need in this area.”
Loaves and Fishes has been bouncing around from location to location since its inception, but has always managed to find somewhere to land. After Christ Presbyterian, the YMCA was generous enough to give them some space before they eventually moved into a building owned by Pooler First Baptist Church, 110 N. Chestnut St., where they have operated for the last three years.
But service may come to an end on June 30 if Loaves and Fishes can’t find another home. In March, the church informed the organization it had 90 days to vacate the two rooms behind the church that the nonprofit had been renting for $300 a month since 2022.
“We had two of our board members meet with the gentleman who wrote the letter, and he said you have to wait until our business meeting, which happened two weeks ago,” O’Leary said. “June 11—they made the decision, and no other explanation was given other than we needed to vacate by June 30.”
‘We’re fighting to stay alive’
The food pantry is typically open twice a month, with 10 to 15 volunteers serving on average 100 to 120 people every Saturday they are open. They also share the space with the Lions Club and Backpack Buddies, which Loaves and Fishes started in 2012. Backpack Buddies packs about 800 bags a month, feeding 200 kids a month so that they can eat on the weekends throughout the school year.
Although the organization has not secured a new site for Loaves and Fishes, they have found a climate-controlled storage room to continue Backpack Buddies.
On Saturday mornings, people from Pooler, Savannah and Effingham county line up as early as 7 a.m. to get the week’s worth of food, depending on the size of the family, even though Loaves and Fishes does not open until 10 a.m. They also stand in line for dog and cat food, and gently used clothing and household items when inventories are available. No one is turned away.
Loaves and Fishes Board President C.H. Brewer recalls a time when a particularly bad hurricane struck Florida, and they served some people who were migrating to Georgia for a few weeks until they were able to get their first paycheck.
“So, we think we provide a valuable service, and we’re hoping some publicity would help us find a place we can stay,” Brewer said. “We’re not mad at First Baptist Church. They own the property, can do whatever with it, but we are disappointed.”
Space options are limited right now. O’Leary, Brewer and Fred Bryant, who’s in charge of the packing, have started a GoFundMe campaign, which stood at about $4,380 on Thursday afternoon. They have started talking with about six different churches in the area to see if they had space, and they all said no.
“Then we started looking for places we could rent out, but our annual budget is $25,000 a year, and we would like to use the majority of that for food,” Brewer said. “But when we were looking at places to rent, we need about 1,500 square feet for Backpack buddies, the food pantry, and we cannot pay $5,000 a month.”
They began looking for places that they could buy and, maybe, refurbish, but the GoFundMe funds would go toward a place they could either buy or rent.
“We’re trying, we’re trying, fighting to stay alive,” Brewer said. “If we close, we’ll open again. We’ll find a way. We’ve been at it for 15 years, and it’s in our blood.”
The last day the pantry will be serving food is this Saturday, June 28.
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for the Savannah Morning News, covering the municipalities, and community and cultural programs. You can reach her at [email protected]
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