Rose Dhein and her husband work full time, even overtime. Their wages cover the bills but leave little in their budget to feed their family of eight.

Fortunately, Dhein has a good friend who told her about the Cache Community Food Pantry. The Dheins brought their paycheck stubs to the pantry, which established their need and qualified them to receive food aid.

Dhein said, “My kids love Tuesdays. I come to the pantry and fill my cart with fruits, vegetables, the necessities and always a little treat for them too.”

This week the treat was Halloween-decorated minicupcakes, donated by a local grocery store.

Dhein’s children range in age from kindergarten to college. She said all of them help out to support the family. Having to get additional help from the community is nothing to be embarrassed about, she said.

“The shameful thing is when someone is in need and doesn’t ask for help,” Dhein said.

Dhein said when money wasn’t so tight, she was able to contribute to the pantry.

“Receiving is just the other side of giving. You can’t have one without the other,” Dhein said.

Matt Whitaker, director of Cache Community Food Pantry, said the economic downturn is having a direct impact on locals being able to put food on their tables.

“One hundred and forty-five families in Cache Valley utilize the food pantry for sustenance each week. That is a dramatic increase from the 100 families we served just one year ago,” Whitaker said.

Whitaker is grateful for the help that USU students offer the pantry.

“I can’t say enough about what students do, especially the Stuff A Bus program,” Whitaker said. “They deliver an enormous amount of food at a very critical time.”

Brittany Ingalls, chair for the Stuff A Bus program this year, said the program began Nov. 1 and it supports the Sub for Santa program, as well as the food pantry. Every Monday in November at 6 p.m., students ride the Aggie Shuttle buses out into the community. Greeks, clubs and athletes also conduct their own donation-raising projects in conjunction with the program.

Students in the past have brought food from their cupboards, but their real impact is in asking other community members to donate. Besides going door to door, students campaign outside of local grocery stores. Logan native Lisa Sheppard was shopping at Lee’s Marketplace last year when USU students were requesting donations.

“It made giving to a cause I support very easy for me,” Sheppard said. “They had a flier listing all of the items needed, and I was able to purchase some of them while doing my regular shopping. They even had me recycle the list back to them when I gave them my donations so they could give it to another patron.”

The food pantry operates from a well-maintained but inadequate warehouse that was built in 1952. It was never designed to store food, yet the volunteers and employees have made it work over the years. They have a new future to look forward to – a new building, designed by Thomas Jensen, at Architectural Nexus. The $400,000 project will provide the much needed additional space, including more refrigerators and freezers as well as proper ventilation.

Food pantry volunteer Mary Laine said, “We are always grateful for the generosity of the public, USU students and local businesses. They are the reason we are able to give people what they need. We are asking for a little more right now to help us to continue and to better serve those in need.”

Laine said the undersized building that the pantry works from now forces people to wait in line outside.

“It really breaks my heart to see the people standing outside in ice-cold conditions, waiting for their turn to come in,” Laine said.

She said the capacity of the new building will eliminate this problem and allow them to properly store all donated foods.

“These are hard-working families, single moms, the disabled and the elderly trying to get by, and the new building will serve them with dignity,” Laine said.

– tam.r@aggiemail.usu.edu