The Christian Center re-opened Monday. They’ve been providing services from the food pantry since the middle of March when public health orders shut down all but essential businesses. They expect their receiving department will likely be inundated for the short term.
Christian Center Executive Director Rob Harter says to expect wait times for those who want to drop off items for the thrift store and boutique. He says they’re planning for a lot of activity after the weeks of people staying at home.
“Honestly, give it some patience. There will probably be a line. If you’re not desperate with that dropping off your things, I encourage you to wait until later this week or even into next week, just because we have a sense it's going to be extremely busy and our hours are limited. Because again, we're trying to do that soft opening to get back to full opening here soon”
He’s anticipated a lot of merchandise coming into both the Park City and Heber locations. Harter says they’re taking spring and summer clothing only. They will eventually take the winter items but for now, they’re limited on space. In the coming weeks, they’ll re-instate their pick-up program for those who want to donate but just want to stay home.
“We’re able to load a lot of things onto our trucks. And in Heber, it’s not nearly as busy. Right now, there's more space in Heber as well so between the two stores and our trucks we’re able to provide most of it now.”
Harter says they’ve cleaned out their winter items from both the thrift store and the boutique, so they have space to take on the back fill of spring and summer clothing and accessories. They’ll allow 20 people in the store at one time.
“So, yes. We’ll be open 11 A.M. to 4 P.M. in both Park City and in Heber. Same thing. We ask everyone to wear mask you know as they come in. We are going to have someone stationed at the front of the stores just to make sure that you know we only allow a certain amount of people. So we're going to have just a controlled amount of people coming into the store and as one person leaves, we’re going to let another one in, that kind of thing. Our staff will also be wearing masks and gloves as well.”
They’ve modified the Food Pantry service which has been strictly a pick-up service since mid-March. It requires an appointment which can be made online at www.ccofpc.org. Only one person at a time will be allowed to enter the pantry. Staff will wear masks and gloves and customers will be asked to wear masks as well.
“And, just let us know how many people in your family and when you like to come and we're going to give the first four parking spaces right next to our pantry for pantry guests and that way they could park spend hopefully 10 to15 minutes, get their food and be on their way.”
Harter says there’s been a slight decrease in people accessing the food pantry. Recently, they’ve gone from 1,000 to 800 individuals being served.
“The real clear difference is we’ve had a lot of international students that were still here. Basically, in a sense, trapped. They couldn't get home to Peru or Argentina and Paraguay. Those were the three main countries and some of them were able to go home. So we had a lot of them coming through on a weekly basis that are no longer there. I think that was part of it but it's been pretty steady like you said six weeks in a row of about 1000 individuals. We really want people to use the food pantry as long as they need it."
Monday through Saturdays, the Food Pantry at the Park City location will be open 11 to 4 PM and the Heber location is open 12 to 4. With COVID restrictions easing up, they’ll take food donations at both locations.
Links:Christian Center of Park City and Heber
