MILFORD, Del. - The Milford Community Pantry pleas for volunteers as the need for food and essentials grows.
Lourdes Cisneros relies on help from the pantry since she adopted 5-year-old Bella four years ago when she said Bella's mother, addicted to drugs, left the baby with her.
Cisneros said getting Bella's school supplies and clothes is expensive, making her rely on food donations even more so,
"She's in the school and I get her shoes and clothes second hand, but I don't care. She needs someone to love her."
The families the pantry has helped have doubled since before the pandemic and have handed out about $43,000 worth of food so far this year.
The Director of Inventory, Nancy Czwinski, said more volunteers are needed to help the growing community, "Right now we're only open two days a week, but we could go to three. The other thing we've talked about is having evening hours for those families that can't get here during the day because they are working but they still need the food."
It's not just volunteers, they need supplies, she said the pantry was out of tabbed canned soup last week so she went a step further to help a hungry homeless man.
"I said to him, 'I can give you a can opener' and he cried... We don't know how lucky we are or truly blessed we are to have what we have." said Czwinski.
The pantry mostly relies on donations from the Milford Lions Club, collections from 11 churches in the area and the public.
The Milford Community Pantry is open here at the Avenue Methodist Church on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Avenue Methodist Church. If you're interested in donating or volunteering, the group can be messaged here.