A water line break at Scott’s Run Settlement House (SRSH) earlier this week caused major damage and losses to the local food pantry.
The building that suffered the damage is the old day care, not the original settlement house building, which remains unaffected, the group said in a Facebook post. The upstairs and downstairs pantry area had extreme flooding and damage along with the loss of at least 7 refrigerators/freezers and multiple shelves of food.
Staff members were on site when the break occurred but were able to make it out of the building safely.
SRSH stated they are still working with insurance and restoration companies about the extent of the damage, but at the very least it will be gutting the building to the studs.
While the damage is bad, it could have been a lot worse. SRSH is in the midst of opening a new location on Fairchance Road, so thankfully, about 85% of the overall pantry items had been moved to the new location in the last two weeks. Despite the setback on Lady Bug Drive, the group hopes to open the Fairchance Road location on Monday as originally planned.
They currently plan to have a smaller, satellite pantry in the Osa g e/Scott’s Run area, but it will be weeks at best before that will be set up.
“Not only will equipment and food have to be replaced, but we will also have to go through a new inspection process for that new location,” they said. “We will provide periodic updates for that process. In the meantime, all services will be run through the Fairchance Road location only while work continues at the Osage location.
Free produce will still continue to be offered at the Osage location on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but food pantry and senior boxes will not be offered there for at least a few weeks.
SRSH is looking for volunteers to help at the Fairchance Road location, Monday through Friday, 8:30 am through 4:30 pm.
The pantry asks the community to “please bear with us as we work through things the next couple of weeks and know our mission is still a place that anyone can turn to for help.”
