“Our Lady’s Pantry traces its beginnings to December, 1999,” said director Tom Bullaro. “At that time, a dozen parishioners from Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission first stuffed their cars with food, week after week, to share with 25 families in need.”
“Those dozen parishioners were soon joined by dozens more as, little by little, more people came for food, and more cars were needed to bring in those groceries,” he said. “We didn’t have our first small truck until 2008. And then, little by little, we outgrew that truck as well.”
“Today, about 700 clients come through our drive-through Pantry every two Saturdays,” he added. “We now have two big refrigerated trucks to bring in tens of thousands of pounds of food every week. Thankfully, Dave Mariconda has taken the lead in organizing our team of drivers and helpers and maintaining our trucks. And Kim Kordalski works closely with Dave in scheduling pickups.”
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a provision under Section 170(e)(3) that allows food markets to take enhanced tax deductions for donating apparently wholesome food to qualified 501(C)(3) nonprofit food banks, like Our Lady’s Pantry. What this means is that we receive donations of food from a dozen vendors to share with our clients every Saturday. A few of these vendors donate more than once a week.
“Every day is its own day,” said Kordalski, who is the assistant director of the Pantry, “but it all begins before dawn, most of the year.”
“We like to take off by 6 a.m.,” said Mariconda. “The later we go in the morning, we run into so much traffic and construction. But we don’t just jump in the truck and take off. Once we turn the ignition on, we do a quick walk around.”
“Many boxes of food are too heavy for one person to lift, and vendors do not help,” said Mariconda. “For this reason, we ask for a helper to ride along with the driver to help load donations onto our truck.”
Once a driver returns to Wimauma, he or she unpacks the truck, loading boxes onto our fork lift, then drives it to the scale at the entry of the Pantry. Here it is weighed, the store identified, and the donation recorded.
“One of us is standing by the scale,” said Kordalski. “We note the store, the weight, and the product type of food (i.e., bakery, meat, dairy, prepared food, produce and nonperishables). on our clipboard.”
After the food has been weighed, the driver sets the boxes on the floor, where other hands scoop it up, sorting it further by eggs, produce, meats/frozen foods, and nonperishables. Once all the donations are in, Kordalski sends the numbers to Feeding Tampa Bay, so each store gets tax credits for their donation.
Our Lady’s Pantry provides for an average of 300 clients who are coming through a drive-through pantry every week for groceries. It is located at 16650 U.S. 301 S. in Wimauma. Contact tom@ourladyspantry.com.
To read ‘Getting Ready for Saturday,’ Part Two, visit www.ourladyspantry.com/getting-ready-for-saturday-part-two/.