OURAY – The Ouray County Food Pantry once provided food for members of the community in need of assistance, but recently had to close its doors.

The Ouray County Department of Social Services started the food pantry in the 1990s.

“We gathered donations of food from various organizations and stored them in a closet to divvy out once a week,” explained Allan Gerstle, director of Ouray County Social Service. “This became too much for the county offices to handle, with so much other business at hand.”

The Calvary Assembly of God Church took over the task and ran the pantry for four years, receiving funding from the county as well as donations from other faith-based and community organizations. They were very successful, providing many people with much needed provisions on a biweekly basis.

Social Services is now looking for a new home for the pantry in the Ridgway area. “We would like to find a place in Ridgway for the pantry so it will be more central to our county offices,” Gerstle said. “We just need a place with a big closet to store the donations, and a couple of volunteers to dole out the food once or twice a week.”

He has contacted a few local faith-based organizations and has posted an ad in local papers.

“I hope to hear from someone in the Ridgway community who would like to get involved in this worthy cause,” said Gerstle.