Conflict takes place over church food pantry
STROUDSBURG, MONROE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Tension and conflict over a church food pantry and its delivery system in Monroe County. Stroudsburg Borough officials say there have been several issues with the pantry over parking space and community safety in the last several months.
But food pantry organizers don’t agree.
The Stroudsburg Borough Municipal Building and Christ Episcopal Church are located right next to each other but right now they’re not making for very nice neighbors.
Food had to be delivered differently inside christ episcopal church during the food pantry’s Friday distribution.
Members of the church carted food products from across Seventh Street over to the church after Stroudsburg Borough Municipal Officials blocked off their parking lot with borough vehicles.
“We basically prevented access to our parking lot so they could not use our parking lot,” said Larry Kopp the borough manager in Stroudsburg.
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Kopp says over the past year access to streets and residential areas near the properties has been packed with cars and pantry recipients. With only one exit out of the parking lot, it gets congested.
“Because of the amount of people coming to the food pantry now, it creates a very unsafe situation. We couldn’t get people out to do their jobs,” continued Kopp.
The pantry has gone from serving 30 families to more than 400 in just one year.
“Our volunteers unload that truck within 20-30 minutes and it’s in the church for another 40 so maybe an hour to two hours at the most,” stated Father Bruce Gowe the administrator at Christ Episcopal Church.
In a statement put out by the borough, there are claims about harassment and disrespectful behavior of volunteers toward borough staff.
“We can’t state if there was actual harassment. If there was the church has a policy that we will of course follow through. We take those claims very seriously,” added Father Gowe.
Both Kopp and Father Gowe say both sides have offered solutions but so far no agreement has been reached.
“We want them to be able to do the work, but they just can’t here any longer,” says Kopp.
Kopp is looking for the food pantry to use the parking lot across the street to complete deliveries or to relocate.
Father Gowe tells me if the borough would supply financial coverage for a new building and proper staffing they would consider relocating.
But both are looking to come to some kind of solution.
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