HOOKSETT — As the summer heats up, so does the discussion around the future home of the town's food pantry.

“I know that on days like this, it must be 100 degrees in there for the volunteers,” said town administrator Dean Shankle. “It's all run by volunteers. They do good things and shouldn't be uncomfortable.”

The Hooksett Community Food Pantry currently operates out of space in the back of Town Hall, using a small room near the renovated school building's kitchen that heats up quickly because of energy generated by the pantry's refrigerator.

Pantry volunteers, working with Shankle, must decide whether to purchase a costly air conditioning unit or relocate within Town Hall.

The pantry is sponsored by the Hooksett Kiwanis Club and is not an official town entity. After outgrowing its former home in the Congregational Church of Hooksett, it moved to the former kitchen storage space in the town offices as part of a 2009 Eagle Scout project.

“There's some emotional attachment to that space,” Shankle said.

The type of air conditioning unit needed to adequately cool the room would have to be installed through the building's roof and would cost between $7,000 and $10,000, Shankle said.

In light of the cost, the town council at its June 13 meeting came to a consensus that the pantry move to a different area of the building.

The decision was not, however, a binding motion requiring the pantry to relocate.

When the council next met on Wednesday, Kiwanis food pantry chair Barb Brennan used the public input portion of the meeting to ask that the councilors reverse their consensus and explain why volunteers wanted to remain in the same spot.

“Sometimes what seems to make sense on one level is not always the best solution,” she told the board. “Allowing the food pantry to stay in its current location and continue its mission is the right thing to do.”

Brennan said that if the pantry were elsewhere in the town offices, donations would have to be brought to the front entrance rather than the back door, which would block the fire lane. A different space would also compromise the pantry's commitment to confidentiality, since clients would have to walk through the building to receive donations.

After Brennan's presentation, Town Council chairman James Sullivan said the board had acted in haste at its earlier meeting, without having all the information. The council then agreed the pantry should work with Shankle to find a solution agreeable to both the town and the volunteer group.

Brennan declined to comment after the meeting, saying she did not want to discuss the issue before reaching a decision with Shankle.

Shankle said Friday he would be open to the pantry either moving to another space or staying where it is, if the volunteers can raise funds to purchase the necessary cooling system.

“I think we can work something out,” he said.

klannan@newstote.com