MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A volunteer pantry that brings groceries to immigrant households in Memphis says demand is still running high more than a year after it opened, with deliveries jumping after a large federal raid at a city nightclub in late summer.
The Collective Good Immigrant Pantry works out of garages and spare rooms instead of a storefront. Since it began in July 2025, its volunteers have completed more than 3,200 deliveries. Many go to families who lost income when a main earner was detained or deported, and others go to people who are afraid to leave home to shop.
The households it serves are large. The typical one has at least five people, adults and children together, and diapers, baby formula and snacks for kids remain the items the pantry needs most.
Organizers said requests had dropped over the summer, then climbed sharply in September. Weekly deliveries rose from 23 households to 74 in the weeks after the raid, and volunteers made 57 deliveries during the week of Oct. 11.
The raid that drove the spike came on Aug. 30 at the El Corralon nightclub. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said ICE New Orleans arrested 121 people there in a multiagency targeted enforcement operation it named Operation Corral Light. The department said the people it arrested included some with records for larceny, drug possession, domestic violence and assault.
The pantry has also been feeling higher grocery prices. Vegetable oil cost just over $2 when organizers first put it on the online wish list, and it now costs more than $4. Donations of nonperishable goods have slipped, so cash gifts are used to buy dairy, meat and fresh produce and to cover gaps on the shelves.
More than 100 volunteers keep the operation going, and none of its founders had worked in food aid before. The group takes donations of food and hygiene items such as shampoo and deodorant through an online wish list, along with cash.
