A decade of service at the Christ Commissary Food Pantry evolved from the fear that the Y2K computer bug would throw the world into chaos.

"There we were," said CCFP director Shelley Rose, recalling the unused generator, the shelves of canned food and the volunteer's lingering appetite to help others.

And so what started in 1999 as a Millenium project turned into a food pantry.

On Sunday, volunteers, church members and officials from other food pantries gathered in a small gymnasium at First Brethren of Elkhart to celebrate CCFP's 10th anniversary. There, where the project began and operations continue, the talk turned to memories from the past 10 years.

"We were serving maybe 20 families in the morning and evenings when we first started. The other day we served 80 in the morning and 50 at night," Rose said. "It has grown way beyond what we ever thought it could."

As much as CCFP volunteers are looking back, Rose said the focus is on the future. By Jan. 1, directors hope the food pantry will be under a 501c3 status, effectively turning it from a religious organization to a charitable organization. The move will make CCFP privy to more grants, Rose said.

Such grants might one day allow volunteers to move from the two small rooms they currently work out of into a facility of their own.

"I hope we're here another 10 years," Rose said, although digressing, "What a wonderful world it would be if we weren't needed."