People still line up every day outside the Bethel Memorial Deliverance Church Food Pantry on State Street in Bridgeport even though it’s been closed for the past year.

"We serve so many people, and our food pantry is so important to all of them that folks just keep showing up here -- in the hope that we'll finally be open again," executive director Denise Wiggins-Henry told News 12.

"We were forced to shut down a year ago due to what I consider to be minor code violations -- like our floor was uneven and the cement out front wasn't perfect -- but none of those problems had anything to do with the quality or safety of the food we were serving," she said.

Wiggins-Henry said the problems are fixed and the food pantry is ready to serve the public again, but due to federal budget cuts, there is no provider able to donate food to the pantry.

"And that's a shame because so many people rely on us," she said.

State Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox says she's working to help get the food pantry reopened.

"This food pantry should never have been closed and I'm going to do everything I can to get these doors open again for families in the community," Gadkar-Wilcox said.