Red Star Food Pantry faces closure but hopes for future support from community

Red Star Food Pantry recently announced it would have to potentially close Tuesday, Dec. 31, because of a loss of funding.

The loss of funding was due to several key benefactors having passed away, according to David Sexton, one of Red Star Food Pantry’s directors.

After a news article by KFVS12 last week, a volunteer with Red Star Food Pantry set up a GoFundMe account to raise money for the pantry. As of Thursday, Dec. 5, the campaign has raised $3,500. With this money, Sexton said it would keep the pantry running until the end of February.

Sexton said there are things in progress to help keep the pantry open and running, but he is not able to discuss them at this time.

“We have some things in the works that hopefully in a couple of weeks, we can announce that would get us beyond February, but we still need the community to step up if they can,” Sexton said.

Red Star Food Pantry has been around since 1993 and has several different programs for distributing food. According to the GofundMe account, the food pantry has served more than 60,000 meals to families in the last year.

The pantry will distribute food Friday Dec. 6, at 361 Country Club Drive in Cape Girardeau. Community members may begin lining up at 4 p.m., with food distribution starting at 4:30 p.m.