CHICAGO (WLS) — A new expanded food pantry will serve more than 600 families on the West and Northwest Sides.

After months of waiting, the Choice Store Food Pantry, part of Grace and Peace Church is finally ready to open.

“I know that the work is going to be great and I know that it’s going to serve the most marginalized folks in our community,” Grace and Peace Church Pastor John Zaias said. “The most disadvantaged and the most needy folks and that’s the driving force of why are we doing this”

This pantry almost didn’t happen – as the ABC7 I-Team discovered, the expansion was delayed because local steel company American Steel Fabricators took over $150,000 from the church – and never did the work.

That money was never returned.

READ MORE: Melrose Park steel company that took money for unfinished work now liquidating assets

Thanks to a collaboration with the Greater Chicago Food Depository and local workers, the pantry came together and is now ready to feed families.

Many of families are migrants settling in to their new living situations.

“We have so many neighbors in this moment who do not have access to enough food,” Greater Chicago Food Depository CEO Kate Maehr said.

The church hopes to open the new expanded food pantry next week.

To learn more about the food bank, click here.