The Food Pantry began as a volunteer project of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in 1970. It has since outgrown its closet-sized beginnings and now encompasses a large space in the undercroft of the church, maintaining an industrial freezer, accepting fresh vegetable donations, and holding a leadership role as the second largest distributor of donated food in Passaic County.

Every Thanksgiving, SPCDC hosts a Holiday Food Drive, coordinating donations to provide meals and Thanksgiving Turkeys to hundreds of families. In 2004, New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Charles Kuperus helped us serve our clients by bagging donated food items alongside our AmeriCorps Members and volunteers.

The purpose of the Food Pantry is to provide supplemental food assistance to individuals and families who are unable to purchase their nutritional requirements. Our ultimate goal is to develop self-sufficiency in our clients, and our food assistance program is intended as a "hand-up, not a handout", in helping individuals and families achieve greater stability in their lives.

Clients who demonstrate need receive emergency grocery boxes, each containing an equivalent of 15 meals. We also distribute over 400 turkeys in November during our Thanksgiving Holiday Drive, and provide food to our Emergency Men's Shelter, Partnerships for Healthy Living Program, as well as the after-school program at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

The Pantry is operated with help from AmeriCorps*State Members, volunteers from local area churches, and WorkFirst NJ volunteers. North Porch, operated by the Episcopal Church Women, is housed in the Pantry and annually provides emergency supplies and food to over 100 women and new mothers; with special consideration for those awaiting WIC eligibility. Women, Infants, and Children staffers are on site one day per week.

Pantry Manager Lou Francia.

Because we carefully monitor clients through our 'Efforts to Outcomes' (ETO) Database, we know that most clients use the Pantry only once per year. This is consistent with our mission, which is to be an emergency source of food assistance. Our goal is not to have participants depend on the Pantry for nutritional needs indefinitely. If this pattern emerges, we connect clients with relevant aid programs at the CDC, public assistance, general assistance, social security, and other types of emergency services.

In 2009 St. Paul's CDC Food Pantry distributed 433,800 meals to 8,936 individuals (unduplicated).  Of those individuals 2,748 were heads of households.