Food Pantry Forced to Throw Out Food

It’s bad enough having to throw out food from your own fridge.

The Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Interfaith Food Pantry was forced Tuesday to throw out the food meant for the fridges and freezers of area families in need.

The food pantry, 600 E. Oak St., lost power Monday after the powerful storm that hit the area. The pantry, which typically opens weekly on Tuesday and Thursday, was unable to open its doors Tuesday due to the outage but is slated to reopen Thursday.

Mary Piemonte, volunteer manager for the Algonquin-Lake in the Hills Interfaith Food Pantry, said the pantry lost all its frozen meat and several hundred dollars in refrigerated food.

Piemonte and other volunteers spent late Tuesday afternoon throwing out 80 dozen eggs, two cases of cheese, two cases of margarine and all the pantry’s meat, she said.

“All of the volunteers who showed up to help didn’t have power either,” Piemonte said. “There was really nothing we could do. We’d rather be safe than sorry. The power’s been off since Monday morning. We don’t want anyone to get sick.”

The food pantry opens for operations every other Saturday of the month and every Tuesday and Thursday morning.

Piemonte said she hopes when the pantry moves to its new location, at a pole barn on Pyott Road, which is slated for 2012. The new facility will be equipped with a backup generator.

“Unfortunately, we’ve had this happen before,” Piemonte said.