The Creswell Food Pantry has quadrupled its space, going from a 500-square-foot section of the Veterans of Foreign Wars building to 2,000 square feet in the Cobalt Building, which has been vacant since 2006.
What is welcome news to local patrons of the pantry is also a signal that some life is returning to the city-owned building at 364 Cobalt Lane, which was last used as a torque converter reclamation factory.
The food pantry’s old location was cold in the winter and hot in the summer and so cramped that volunteers sometimes had to turn away food donations, said Susan Blachnik, who manages the pantry with her husband, Kirk.
In addition to more room for donations, the new location means more families can shop at the same time, will not have to wait as long for their turn and can enjoy the shelter of a covered patio rather than wait in the rain.
“It really helps us” in meeting the growing need for food, Susan Blachnik said.
Twenty-nine percent of Creswell residents use food stamps, Blachnik said, and traffic at the pantry has increased by 55 percent in the past year alone.
Pantry advocates
anticipate that demand for services will increase even more as a result of new reductions to the federal food stamp program that took effect Nov. 1.
The VFW had allowed the pantry to use the space in its building rent-free. The pantry, in turn, made an annual donation of $500 to the VFW. The food pantry has a similar arrangement with the city, the Blachniks said.
Expenses for electricity and water will go up with the move to a larger space, the couple said, but that’s a small price to pay for an indoor toilet and better climate control.
From an operational standpoint, it will be faster and easier to set up the pantry and take it down, which could translate into the pantry being open longer hours, Kirk Blachnik said.
Not long ago, the pantry operated from a closet at a church, and before that as a pop-up at a campground, so the move to the Cobalt Building is a big leap forward in serving a growing need, say the Blachniks, who spend almost as much time as volunteers at the pantry as they do at their paid jobs as a nurse and plumber, respectively.
The couple is hoping to find someone to help them apply for grants to help them properly outfit the new facility, which they figure will cost about $30,000, including $9,000 for a walk-in cooler, the most expensive item. The city already had paid for some electrical upgrades before the proposal to move the food pantry was approved.
Ross Murry of Murry Investments gave the building and the 1.2 acres it sits on to the city in 2005 as part of a parks and open space requirement associated with a nearby residential development.
The nonprofit pantry, an affiliate of FOOD for Lane County, paid for all of the upgrades necessary to open to the public in the Cobalt Building.
The city has set up a committee to work on strategies for recruiting other tenants, Community Development Coordinator Madeline Phillips said. She heads the five-member Cobalt Action Committee, which is accepting applications from potential tenants.
Phillips is the Americorps volunteer from the Resources Assistance for Rural Environments program run through the University of Oregon. Since the city acquired the Cobalt Building, RARE volunteers, who work full-time for about a year on average, have been at the helm of moving the project forward.
The previous vision for the building, based on focus groups and surveys, was to turn it into a community center.
A 2009 feasibility study, which focused on using the space for recreation, estimated costs of needed upgrades for the building at between $98,522 and $255,158, depending on floor plans and usage. The town’s population increased 30 percent between 2000 and 2008, according to the feasibility study, which was part of the rationale for making public recreation facilities a priority.
Mayor Dave Stram said he still hopes an indoor skateboarding facility and wrestling club will be able to move into the Cobalt Building.
“Those fit in ideally with our plan,” he said. “There are tons of possibilities. This wonderful facility — 9,000 square feet — you can do a lot with that. I’m a huge proponent of it.”
He said that last year the city put $35,000 into electrical and plumbing upgrades and is looking for “other ways to push (the project) forward in this budget cycle.” he said. “That may not happen. We just don’t know yet.”
Phillips said her main goal for the remaining nine months of her service in Creswell will be gaining new occupants, after first ensuring that the building is safe.
“There’s a lot of optimism and enthusiasm,” Phillips said. “There are organizations that have shown interest. … The pantry sort of led the way for social services to get involved.”
Cobalt Building
Address: 364 Cobalt Lane
Acquired by city: 2006
Square footage: 9,000
Tenants: Creswell Food Pantry
Square footage remaining: 7,000
Originally published in The Register Guard
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