Bucks Food Pantry Closing Until Parking Resolved In Bensalem Township

BENSALEM TOWNSHIP, PA —A Bucks County food pantry will be closed Friday after organizers said they could not find sufficient overflow parking to cater to some of the 600 families it feeds each week.

Harvest Ministries serves Bucks County and Philadelphia residents in need of healthy foods out of the Cornwells United Methodist Church at 2284 Bristol Pike Tuesday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and also offers produce from 5:30-7 p.m.

But this Wednesday was the last time and now pantry coordinator Joann Jordan doesn't know if the pantry can continue operations next week. She's already canceled deliveries for Friday.

"We're scouring the area looking for parking," Jordan told Patch Thursday. "We have no idea. So we can't be open."

The pantry's parking lot only has 35 spots and the pantry functions "like an outdoor farmer's market," Jordan said.

But the crowds were getting too large and neighbors were complaining. So after meeting with township officials and Bensalem Police, Jordan secured overflow parking with the catering hall that operates out of the nearby Cornwells Fire House.

"Police were here for a few weeks trying to control traffic," Jordan said. "We had a personal meeting with the mayor."

Jordan provided instruction on Harvest Ministries' Facebook page that people were to be called in order of arrival to drive to the pantry/church when parking opens up. She also requested that no one arrives before 10 a.m. on Tuesday and Friday and not before 4 p.m. on Wednesdays.

"There were weeks that went very well," Jordan said.

But that came to an abrupt halt after she had a conversation early this week with the president of the Cornwells Fire Company Station 16.

"The firehouse said we can't park there anymore and that we could do Wednesday evening and then we're done," she said. "There wasn't much notice."

The fire company president, Scott —who asked for his last name not to be used —told Patch Thursday that they tried to accommodate the food pantry.

"They reached out about parking," he said. "We left that in the hands of the caterer and it went on for about a month. But it was just too much and too frequent to handle. They were parked where our fire trucks were and we're emergency responders. Neighbors were complaining. It became a real safety concern."