A History of the Pantry

In October 2000 , a proposal was presented to the AARP chapter 2500 in Llano Texas.

Mr. Jim Caldwell. A member of the Texas Silver haired Legislature. Challenged the chapter to sponsor and operate a Food Pantry for the Llano area.

The chapter accepted the Challenge. Jim, coordinating with the Capital Area Food Bank of Austin Made arrangements for us to procure some food items through them as they were available.  That arrangement is still in place.

Base of operations needed:

The AARP Chapter had no place to store and distribute the food.  A place was provided by the Llano housing authority. They allowed us to use half of their Maintenance building.

We started out serving 25 Families. The capitol area Food Bank gave us a $500 grant,  since we had no funds to purchase food.  We went out to the people in the LLano area asking for assistance.  Jim Caldwell was a big help opening doors and making contacts.  The LCRA workers made contributions, so did the Crawfish open golf  association and several of the local businesses.  A couple of churches have been regular contributors from the beginning.

The picture below is the original group of volunteers who began the pantry.

Where We Are Now:

We finally took over the complete maintenance building located on the south side of the Housing authority and Senior Center.

The Pantry is now serving an average of 170 Families twice each month.  We are
in the process of starting a new building adjacent to our present location.  We have long since out grown the present facility. it is a 24X24 metal Maintenance Building  No Water or Rest room facilities. Just a bare building with a roll up garage door and one entrance door.  We have no heat or air conditioning, but our families and volunteers have worked without complaint during our growth period.  Preserving our food stuffs has been a challenge.  As a result, we have to make multiple trips to stores and Austin to pick up perishable items to serve our families.

the building has served us well and we have operated out of it for 6 years now. We are grateful for the loan of the building, from the Llano Housing authority.  Without their help we would not have made it. When ever help was needed someone rose to the occasion.  The pantry has been truly blessed.
   

Our community needs outgrew our facilities:

 In July 2006 . one of the pantry board members contributed $400 to start a building fund  for the pantry.  An account was opened on July 10th 2006 in the Llano National Bank and the building fund got under way.  

As of this date 02/26/2007 the building fund has enough funds to start the construction.  The rest is very promising. so on Faith we will begin.  Generous contributions  have been received from Organizations in the Llano area as well as from Austin.

The land to construct the building is being made available through the Llano housing authority.  A 40 year lease for $1.00 per year  with option to Renew for another twenty years will be signed.