Mobile pantry, forced to move, draws crowd in Kansas City, Kan.

The first car pulled into the lot by 8:30 a.m., more than four hours before the food would be loaded in car trunks or pickup beds.

Families wanted to get their place in line, which by noon was so long the cars nearly filled a large parking lot at Kansas City Kansas Community College Technical Education Center, 6565 State Ave.

“I think they would have come earlier but the gates weren’t open,” said Jessica Kejr, agency services manager with Harvesters food bank.

Saturday’s mobile food pantry in Wyandotte County came after one at another location a few miles away was canceled earlier this month because of traffic concerns. A Kansas City, Kan., community service group had been sponsoring the twice-a-month pantry at a church parking lot at 88th Street and Parallel Parkway.

When a new location and sponsor were needed, Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas stepped up. The mobile pantries are a way families can supplement what they get from traditional pantries, said Dustin Hardison, director of family stabilization at Catholic Charities.

“That’s the neat thing about the mobile pantries — it’s the perishable things you can’t always keep in the pantry,” Hardison said. “It’s the healthy food.”

Roughly 60 volunteers from Catholic Charities, as well as Harvesters, made a long assembly line and filled the cars as they pulled up and drove on. The volunteers loaded families up with cabbage and carrots, pineapples and potatoes, boxed cereal and yogurt and loaves of bread and bagels.

Cars had a numbered card on their dashboards stating the number of members in their family. Volunteers knew when to give more food to cover the need.

“Look at the lot in that trunk,” said Ken Williams, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities, referring to a car about to drive off and loaded with about 35 pounds of food. “It’s awesome.”

Catholic Charities will have a mobile food pantry at the same location on Dec. 13 and 20.

On Saturday, snow stayed away but temperatures dipped low. Volunteers didn’t seem to mind. Sure, they wore layers, thick gloves and most often a hat. Paula Lehew, who handed out food alongside her son, Max, didn’t even think about staying home.

“Hunger doesn’t know the weather,” Lehew said.

This story was originally published November 15, 2014 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Mobile pantry, forced to move, draws crowd in Kansas City, Kan.."