Longtime car dealership to become the new home of SLO County food pantry
The ALF Food Pantry in Atascadero was brimming with carefully organized crates of food on Wednesday. Boxes of cereal lined the shelves like soldiers, and tubs of fresh, leafy greens like lettuce and kale waited to be distributed.
During the past 41 years, the food pantry formerly known as Loaves and Fishes significantly expanded and outgrew its office space at 5411 El Camino Real, board president Tim Eckles said.
When he started volunteering at the food pantry 14 years ago, the nonprofit served 20 to 30 clients per day. Now, it serves about 50 clients per day, he said.
To create more space for food storage, the pantry replaced a table and chairs in the conference room with multiple refrigerators. Meanwhile, one of the offices doubles as storage for onions and potatoes.
“We are making do here,” Eckles said of the current facility. “That’s a lot of creative work, a lot of give and take.”
Luckily, the nonprofit, has found a new home.
This summer, ALF Food Pantry will move down the road into the former Ted Miles Motors dealership, which closed its location at 7380 El Camino Real after half a century when the owner retired.
Food pantry finds new home at former car dealership
In 2025, the ALF Food Pantry served 700,000 pounds of food to about 5,500 clients across Atascadero, Templeton, Santa Margarita, Creston and the California Valley, Eckles said.
Each of those clients represents a household of about one to eight people, he said.
As the nonprofit’s clientele grew, the board started searching for a new location in February 2019 — and it wasn’t an easy road.
In fact, the experience felt more like a “roller coaster,” as multiple leads for potential properties fell through, Eckles said.
“The last couple years I thought, ‘Gosh, I’d put a tent up if we could,’” he said.
Eckles connected with Ted Miles, the owner of Ted Miles Motors, in 2014, when ALF Food Pantry bought its flagship van from the dealership.
Eckles and Miles stayed in touch, and as the search for a new location wore on — Eckles asked Miles if he would consider selling his property to the food pantry when he was ready to retire.
When Miles decided to retire, he called up Eckles — and by July, ALF Food Pantry signed a real estate offer agreement to purchase the Ted Miles Motors property.
The food pantry placed a down payment of $1.2 million on the property, and escrow officially closed on Jan. 7.
“I’m the kind of person that, my emotions are right under the skin, and even now, just thinking about that is emotional,” Eckles said with tears in his eyes.
Owner of Miles Motors retires
Ted Miles Motors was a family-owned business from the start.
In 1975, Miles bought the property with his father and his wife, Terry. They placed a travel trailer on the lot and started selling used cars.
In 1980, they purchased the L-shaped building on the property, which was a car wash at the time. A few years later, Miles converted the building into a showroom for the dealership.
Miles said he was grateful to serve Atascadero for more than 51 years. He thanked the city and its residents for supporting his dealership for all that time.
“The friendships have just been excellent,” he said. “Couldn’t ask for a nicer place to do business than Atascadero and North County.”
While managing the dealership, Miles also volunteered with the Atascadero Elks Lodge, the Paso Robles American Legion Post 50 and the Lions Club, for which he towed the eyesight trailer that provided free vision exams to children across the Central Coast.
He said retirement has been an adjustment, to say the least.
“We used to go into work seven days a week for the last 50 years,” he said. “So I’m looking forward to spending more time with our family and enjoying each other, and still being able to support the community.”
The family beagle, Tanner, is also adjusting to retirement. She used to greet people at the door of the dealership, and she misses the clients, Miles said.
Miles said he’s glad that the food pantry will move into the old dealership building, calling it “an excellent fit for the food pantry and the community.”
The food pantry prepares its new home
On Wednesday, the former dealership echoed with the buzz of power tools as a group of volunteers tore out cabinets and counters — preparing the building for its conversion.
Miles had dropped by to help, so Tanner the beagle was still there, waiting at the door to welcome visitors as she did when the building was a car dealership.
The new building is about 800 square feet larger than the current food pantry building, Eckles said.
The front end of the building will serve as the distribution point, where clients will enter to collect their food.
The back end will include a walk-in refrigerator, a walk-in freezer and shelves to store fruit, vegetables and dry goods.
The food pantry will be outfitted with solar panels, which will help keep the electricity bill down while reducing the nonprofit’s carbon emissions, Eckles said.
The current facility has solar panels, too, but not enough to cover the entire electricity bill. Even with solar, the nonprofit pays about $1,000 in energy costs each month, Eckles said.
Additionally, the new facility offers significantly more parking — which supports both volunteers and clients.
Eckles also has a dream for the food pantry to build a second building on the back end of the property to house other local nonprofit organizations. That project would be built with capital funds, not donations, he said.
“It will make easily available services to our clients and create a modest revenue stream,” Eckles said.
As exciting as that project will be, the nonprofit is focused on moving into the L-shaped building first, he said.
The goal is to move the food pantry to the new location by the end of the summer, Eckles said.
“We’re very fortunate to be in this community,” Eckles said. “Atascadero has been wonderful; they’ve been regularly generous, and we’re grateful for that.”
How to access food pantry services
To access services, clients can stop by the food pantry in person on weekdays between 1 and 3 p.m.
New clients should bring a photo ID and proof of address. During the first meeting, a volunteer will “gather information about your household and your current needs,” including food allergies and how many people belong to the household, the website said.
Then, a volunteer will present the client with food.
People can also call the food pantry with questions at 805-461-1504 or email at contact@alffoodpantry.org.
Meanwhile, Meals that Connect offers a free lunch to people older than 60 every weekday. Reserve a spot at least two days in advance at mealsthatconnect.org/en/.
Donate to the food pantry online bit.ly/3NVe5R4 or through their Amazon wish list at bit.ly/4qhLrXS.
This story was originally published February 10, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
