Last year, the New Hope Food Pantry in St. Charles almost closed - until a Rams player gave it $5,000.
A couple of years before that, it was about to shut its doors again - until a mortgage company gave $5,000.
But this week, with its shelves nearly empty, the pantry closed. It is $4,500 behind in rent. It fed more than 40,000 people in the St. Louis area last year, and on Tuesday its volunteers had to turn away 97 people. Wednesday, they had to turn away about 40 more.
"Once it's summer, people forget" about making donations, pantry coordinator Kathy Vollmer said. "They go on vacations, there's no school.
"It's not like Christmas."
Summer is always rough, she said. But the pantry has been running since 1990, and this is the first time it has had to close. Vollmer blames the events of Sept. 11 - people lost their jobs, employers cut hours, and donations that would normally go to the pantry went elsewhere.
The pantry and the New Hope Thrift Shop sit in Thoele Plaza on Highway 94, just north of Highway 370. It is one of the biggest food pantries in St. Charles County and is not supported by any government agency. It could reopen with donations.
Social service agencies refer clients to the pantry. They come once a month, and volunteers push a grocery cart among the shelves, "shopping" for the food the families need.
About a third of the customers are older people, Vollmer says, and if the pantry gives them food, they then have the money to buy their medications. Most of the rest are ordinary, working people - single mothers who have minimum-wage jobs and several children, or families that can't afford day care. Those families often have trouble in the summer - their children no longer get their breakfast and lunch from schools, and if the children go to a baby-sitter, their parents often have to send a lunch along.
Volunteer Sally Ray used the pantry herself after Sept. 11. She worked as a flight attendant for TWA, and they took away her bonus and cut her work hours, she said. Once she got back on her feet, she came to the pantry to volunteer.
She knew she made at least one family happy earlier this week. A mother and her young daughter came by, and Ray was able to give the girl several packages of her favorite meal - Ramen noodles.
As Ray packed up those meals, she spotted some Kool-Aid drink boxes nearby and asked if they wanted them.
"Oh, my gosh," the mother said. "You have just made our day."
The girl, Ray said, grinned from ear to ear.
To give money or food to the New Hope Food Pantry, call 636-947-0755.
Reporter Valerie Schremp:\ E-mail: vschremp@post-dispatch.com\ Phone: 636-946-3903, ext. 233