CREVE COEUR • The Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry, which is wrestling with a spike in demand, will soon move into a new building that has more space.

The pantry, at 10950 Schuetz Road, recently bought a 21,000-square-foot building less than a mile away at 10601 Baur Boulevard and plans to move there by midyear. The nonprofit organization said the upgrade will cost $1 million.

"We were feeding 2,500 people a month last year, and now we are feeding over 5,000 people per month," said Fred Steinbach, board chairman of the Jewish Family and Children's Service, which runs the food pantry. "We didn't have room to run the facility efficiently."

The pantry serves the St. Louis region, but in recent years more clients are coming in from areas such as Ladue, Chesterfield and Creve Coeur. Other food pantries in the region have also seen spikes in demand from people in affluent suburbs.

"We have people picking up food at the pantry this year who donated last year," Steinbach said. "What we are hearing is people have mortgages that they can't unload and a house that they can't sell, and their families still need to eat."

The pantry has a policy not to turn anybody away, which is another reason why more space is needed, he said.

Clients can make appointments if they don't want to be recognized, said Phyliss Weiss, a spokesperson for the food pantry.

"We go to great lengths to keep their identity private," she said.