Make TBO Your Home Page| Subscribe To The Paper| Advertise With Us| Contact Us| Login| Edit Profile| Register
Suncoast Pasco News
Email
Print
West Pasco Food Bank Planning Expansion
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: December 24, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY - It's never dull being a Christian, Lester Cypher said.
Cypher, the chief executive officer of the faith-based Volunteer Way, says the nonprofit food bank in New Port Richey continues to grow.
The demand for free food, however, has been growing even faster as needy families seek ways to cope with the recession.
"Every day more people come to us for help with food and personal items," Cypher wrote in a recent newsletter.
On one day alone, Nov. 24, the food bank had 259 families show up on its doorstep, on Congress Street. Another 100 additional families came for a Thanksgiving box of food.
In October more than 4,000 families came for help, Cypher reports, but the food bank turned away 2,000 families because it ran out of food.
"I have been serving hungry families for 23 years and have never turned away people that were hungry," Cypher said. "Our children and elderly are going to bed hungry every night. I believe things are going to get a lot worse before they get better."
The food bank organization plans a large-scale hydroponics garden on 6.89 acres of donated property a block or so north of the existing facility at 7820 Congress St. Also, Cypher hopes to have permits by March to erect on the new site a building of about 10,000 square feet.
In a pilot program Volunteer Way is growing its own produce at a smaller hydroponics garden. The larger site on Congress Street, north of Pine Hill Road, would help relieve traffic problems at the hemmed-in existing facility.
"If 2008 is any indication of the direction this economy is going, we are in for a very busy 2009," Cypher said.
He is asking for people to sign up as volunteers or to make donations.
Secure online donations can be made at www.thevolunteerway.org>. Or send checks to: Volunteer Way Inc., 7820 Congress St., New Port Richey, FL 34653.
"Prayer works," Cypher said.
Email
Print
ADVERTISEMENT
Advertisement
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online ©2009 Media General Communications Holdings, LLC. A Media General company. Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
