PHILLIPS - Members of the Phillips Shared Ministry voted Sunday to stop administering the Phillips Food Pantry, which has been closed for three weeks, church member Pat Matulaitis said Monday.

The congregation has less than 20 active members, she said.

Matulaitis said two nonprofit organizations are looking into taking over the pantry. She wouldn't name the groups because plans were not finalized.

"It was a great ministry, but there are just too few members to run it," she said.

The pantry closed on July 1 after its volunteer manager, Madeline Haines, resigned. It provided emergency food for up to 45 households each month in Phillips, Avon and Madrid and had been open for about 14 years, she said.

Since the closing, local families have gone to the food pantry sponsored by the United Methodist Economic Ministry in Salem Township.

During a town meeting earlier this month, Phillips voters expressed concern about having their pantry remain open. They approved $2,700 for the pantry's annual request for funding.

Phillips and Avon have supported the pantry or the church couldn't have kept it going, Matulaitis said.

The congregation was concerned in part that it couldn't heat and light the pantry in the basement of Phillips Methodist Church while holding their own services in the Congregational Church, she said.