The Food Bank for Larimer County will be serving clients five days a week again starting next week from Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 3 pm at its two food pantries in Fort Collins and Loveland.
The Food Bank was forced to split its pantry days and hours of operation during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March to distribute food using a contactless drive-through model. The drive-through process needed more staff and volunteers. It resulted in the Fort Collins pantry operating on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while the Loveland pantry distributed food on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“Like so many in our community, we want nothing more than to return to some level of normalcy,” said Food Bank for Larimer County CEO Amy Pezzani. “This shift to a five-day-a-week schedule is a great first step in that process,” Amy said.
The Food Bank has been working to hire and train additional staff over the course of the past few months to ensure that it can support the transition back to five service days per week at both pantries. One large goal of the new schedule is to make it easier for clients to access Food Bank services but even more so for those who can only shop at the Food Bank on the weekend.
The Blue Spruce Drive pantry in Fort Collins will be closed on Monday, January 18, to accommodate the new schedule. Food distribution will continue through a drive-through process due to the COVID-19 pandemic until further notice.
There are other options, such as mobile food pantries and pop-up food pantries. The Food Bank of Larimer County’s two food pantries are the Fort Collins pantry at 1301 Blue Spruce Dr. and the Loveland pantry at 2600 Lincoln Ave.
“We are hopeful that in the months ahead, we will be able to return to in-person, client-choice shopping at our pantries,” said Amy.
For more information regarding the Food Bank for Larimer County and their COVID-19 updates, visit: https://foodbanklarimer.org/news/covid-19/