Food pantry to move ---- but date is unknown

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Food pantry to move ---- but date is unknown MURRIETA ---- After about seven years providing food and clothing to needy residents from a Murrieta Hot Springs Road strip mall, St. Martha's thrift store and food pantry will soon be moving to a new building that borders French Valley. Although volunteers know they're relocating, the actual date of the move remains unresolved.

The pantry lost its lease on its current home, a cramped 7,000-square-foot storefront on Murrieta Hot Springs Road. 31, said Catherine Mailliard, the parish's director of welfare. The pantry eventually will move to a larger space in the back of a building at 38444 Sky Canyon Drive.

"But people say, 'Just give us a map and we'll find you,'" Mailliard said. Leaders of the pantry are awaiting county approval on the construction of walls and other projects within the new building, Mailliard said. The structure is already built.

Upon the move, the pantry will double in size to 14,000 square feet, allowing for a little breathing room ---- for a little while, anyway. Area growth ---- and accordingly, the need for food and supplies ---- continues. The first pantry opened on Los Alamos Road in 1997 in just 1,500 square feet.

It was moved to Murrieta Hot Springs Road in 2000. There, a large thrift store in the pantry's front welcomes customers. Murals and soft hues adorn the walls, and familiar oldies from Bobby Darin and others play from the speakers.

There are dozens of stuffed animals in an open toy box, and jackets and coats of all types for shoppers. Joe Rosignolo, 53, of San Diego, made his first visit to the thrift store last month in search of a sports coat. His mother recently moved to Murrieta and has shopped there.

"So far, it's impressive because it has everything you'd expect in a thrift store, all the knickknacks," said Rosignolo, who added that he plans to donate old jackets to the parish. There are several smaller rooms in the pantry, most of which are compact and full of clothes, food and/or supplies, including diapers and soap. Several volunteers ---- there are 300 in total ---- prepare donated clothing for the thrift stores.

Others prepare edibles for the 250 mostly local families who receive supplemental food from the pantry each week. The bulk of the pantry's clientele, about 90 percent, are Murrieta residents. About 45 percent of the children serviced are from single-parent households, and about 30 percent of the assisted families are single mothers with children.

A substantial majority, about 97 percent, live in low- or very low-income families. Not all the families and shoppers are locals, however, volunteer Pat Shaw said. "You'd be surprised where people come from: Hemet, Lake Elsinore, Wildomar," said Shaw, 70, of Murrieta.

The eventual move to Sky Canyon won't be bittersweet, Mailliard said. That location, she said, will enable the pantry to broaden its reach into French Valley and Winchester ---- areas of tremendous growth over the last few years, particularly French Valley. Even before the pantry relocates, volunteers have observed an increased demand, which Mailliard attributes to the slowing building and housing markets and stagnant economy.

Dozens of Murrieta homes have foreclosed in recent months. "With the economy the way it is ..

. we have a lot of construction workers coming in," Mailliard said. "And it's trickled down to finance employees, too.

" Contact staff writer Brian Eckhouse at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or beckhouse@californian.com.

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