Aid center’s pantry fills up

BURBANK — At noon, Edward Stapleton began restocking shelves in the Burbank Temporary Aid Center’s pantry.

In the back room, sandwiched between 10-pound bags of potatoes donated Tuesday from Century 21 Insurance and a freezer filled with turkeys donated by First Security Lending and Keller Williams, Stapleton pointed to the corner of the aid center’s crowded pantry room.

“We call this ‘Borg’ like the spaceship from ‘Star Trek’ because it’s so squarish,” said Stapleton, the center’s pantry manager.

In September, the same corner was bleak. Now, there is barely enough room to get by with the shopping carts the center loads for its clients.

Mayor Dave Golonski named November “Burbank Temporary Aid Center Month,” which may have had a positive impact on food collections and fundraising.

As the donations increase for the holiday season, so does the need for them.

“Two to three times a day, we help people who used to be donors,” volunteer Stacy Schumacher said. “These are people who don’t know how to be poor. They wait until the last minute to get help and the power goes out. It’s heartbreaking.”

The entrance to the center is a waiting room for people affected by the economic downturn.

“You wouldn’t even realize that these people are homeless,” said Stapleton, who has helped a lot of people from Burbank over the past eight years. “Those backpacks don’t mean they’re students — they’re homeless.”

Some people wait for their scheduled showers, others to do laundry, many to get food for their families. Whatever their story, no matter how much money they used to have, they all must wait for help in the same line when the aid center’s doors reopen at 1:30 p.m.

“We’ve got all of our clients’ information on little sheets,” Stapleton said. “They hand it to us, and we get to work.”

The food baskets prepared by Stapleton and volunteers are based on the size of the clients’ family, their ages and medical conditions. The only criterion is that the clients must be from Burbank.

The volunteers have a lot of name brands from which to choose.

Costco Wholesale Co., Trader Joe’s, Starbucks and other markets donate overstock, while restaurants like Domino’s Pizza donate neglected orders.

“We get a lot now because of the holidays, and people are feeling generous,” Schumacher said. “But then we get it in dribbles, so we try to make it last.”

For the holidays, the volunteers will try to match every child and teenager with a custom gift for “Santa’s Room,” the center’s Christmas event.

Barnes & Noble will sell books Dec. 24 at a discounted price and deliver them to the aid center.

“A few months ago, the question was, ‘What are we going to do?’” Stapleton said of the supply shortage the center experienced in September. “Now it’s, ‘Where do we put it all?’”