A Flagler County food pantry is hoping to stock their shelves with more food in order to keep feeding thousands of people but the start of the new year is a tough time for pantries.

It's Pastor Eric Trawick's of the First Baptist Church of Bunnell’s goal to keep the Hope House Food Pantry packed with food.

“But once the holidays are over this place here is pretty much empty and it's a massive scramble in order to try to restock the shelves,” said Trawick.

He said they have to find ways to quickly feed nearly 4,000 people each month across Flagler County between their food and bread pantries.

Trawick said the donations from the community are about 50-percent more during the holiday season compared to now.  

Some of the food comes from grocery stores and restaurants.

“When the shelves begin to deplete we really have to cut down on the amount of food we give out,” said Trawick. 

In January said the shelves are just about empty and once they restock the food, he said it only lasts between 2-3 weeks.

“We're getting ready for the big rush,” said Trawick as he and volunteers prepare for Tuesday and Wednesday’s rush.

Rebecca Whalen said she is a part of that rush every week.

“If it wasn't for these beautiful churches helping and donating there would be a lot of starvation,” said Whalen. 

Whalen said she’s grateful for all the help.

“It helps me while I’m not working and I also help my neighbors. It provides vegetables and cereals and it's tremendous it's wonderful what they do,” said Whalen.

“There's always those in our community that fight this battle every day,” said Trawick. 

But’s it’s also a battle his ministry continues to fight and is praying for a little more generosity year round.

“We will take food donations from anyone. What helps us the most is if people give a monetary donation they money helps us out the most because the place we purchase from pay pennies on the dollar to get this food,” said Trawick.

According to Second Harvest of Central Florida spokesperson, 1 in 6 people, including children, need food assistance at least once a year. The organization provides food to more than a handful of agencies in Flagler County.

The Hope House food pantry, located at 2301 Commerce Blvd. in Bunnell, accepts both monetary and food donations. It's open to Flagler county residents on Tuesday and Wednesdays.