FRENCH VALLEY - Volunteers started this week busily moving household items from boxes into position at St. Martha's Community Food Pantry and Second Hand Treasures' new location in French Valley - small photo albums here, larger ones there, books in this corner, bedroom sets in the showroom.

An extension of St. Martha Catholic Church in Murrieta, but an independently run operation, the pantry closed for about two weeks to relocate from that city to a larger space not far outside the city.

The pantry reopened Jan. 2 and now is back in the full swing of collecting donations, selling clothing, furniture and goods, and supplying canned foods, cereals, cooking oil, toothpaste and other staples to needy residents of Murrieta, Winchester and French Valley.

During the relocation effort, community volunteers helped with everything from moving equipment in their trucks to sweeping the old building, said the pantry's assistant director, Sonia Strong. While some shoppers have found the new spot easily, others have not yet visited the new building, Strong said.

As she dashed among some 15 to 20 volunteers who unloaded and counted merchandise in the mid-morning hours Monday, Strong enthusiastically showed off the bigger space that is expected to make the food pantry a more welcoming and effective place for families in need. Having signed up another handful of families since reopening, Strong said the pantry serves about 250 families from surrounding areas.

"It was hard on people," Strong said of the break that occurred while the operation moved. "It's expensive. If you don't have money for food you're going to put these things (like toothpaste) to the side. And if you have a sick kid and he uses the same toothbrush over and over, he's going to stay sick."

About 5,000 square feet larger than the previous building, the 14,260-square-foot facility at 38444 Sky Canyon Drive east of Temecula offers plenty of room for the food pantry. The thrift shop is roomier, too, allowing customers to browse through spacious racks of blouses and trousers and a large display area showing several bedroom sets and in-home office supplies.

Strong said that to alleviate some of the stress of the move, organizers began accepting donations for the second-hand store toward the end of the last year and sales of the newly collected items and goods moved from the previous location will be used to pay the nearly $15,000 monthly rent.

"This is a place where you can get not cheap items, (but) this is a place where you can get specific items you really need," said Dorothy Crayton, who has volunteered at the pantry and second-hand shop for five years.

Along with space in the boutique area, the new pantry is equipped with two walk-in freezers, which Strong said will drastically expand the aid they are able to provide. Previously, givers who tried to donate items such as a pallet of lettuce weren't much help because coordinators had nowhere to keep the produce.

"In three days in the sun, bread goes bad," Strong said. "It was either give it out or throw it away."

But with the freezers, fresh fruits and vegetables and meat last longer than before. Stocked already are flats of frozen juice and bread.

And perhaps less obvious, but arguably as essential, the new grounds offer more personal space.

"We have more space for the … people who come here to have their private conversations about what they need without everybody on top of them," Crayton said. "It's a refuge."

- Contact staff writer Nelsy Rodriguez at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or nrodriguez@californian.com.

AT A GLANCE: St. Martha's Community Food Pantry

St. Martha's Community Food Pantry has relocated to 38444 Sky Canyon Drive in French Valley. Food assistance registration is held every Wednesday and Thursday from 9 to 10:30 a.m.

Donations of food can be dropped off at the back of the building.

For information, call 677-6347.