The North Liberty Community Pantry hosted a groundbreaking event on Tuesday to celebrate the first day of construction of a new food Pantry. The new pantry is located at 350 W Penn St. in North Liberty, Iowa.

The 10,500-square-foot facility will increase the capacity of people the pantry can serve. It works to feed and clothe residents of North Liberty and rural Johnson County who need assistance with necessities like food, clothing, and toiletries.

Community Pantry Executive Director Ryan Bobst said in the release that the new facility will address space shortage problems, allowing them to serve more Johnson County residents.

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“Serving nearly 3,000 neighbors in less than 2,800 square feet has been impossible at times,” Bobst said in the release. “To procure enough food to distribute, we have had to rely on local partners like Fareway and Field Day Brewing Company to temporarily store frozen meat until we have room to distribute it.”

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The new facility, Bobst said, will be almost four times the size of the current facility and will consolidate the Pantry’s resources into one building.

According to the release, services like the Community Pantry are important to address growing food security issues in the area. The pantry has seen a 70 percent increase in families needing assistance and over 100 percent increases in demand for both food and clothing assistance.

The new facility is expected to be open to the public by summer 2025. Pantry Board Member Allison Bates said in the release that the Pantry Board is looking forward to this opportunity to expand.

“We [the Pantry Board] are so excited to reach this step in the process and we are grateful for the support we have received from the community,” she said in the release. “We have discussed this project for quite some time, and it is great to see it become a reality.”