Fruits and vegetables in the new location of the offices and food pantry for the Providence Intown Churches Association. The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — The city’s only downtown food pantry celebrated its move to new quarters Monday, offering oranges, cabbage, bread and potatoes to men and women gathered in the basement of the First Universalist Church.

The move three weeks ago allows the needy to choose from a bigger menu of fresh food, said Diana Burdett, executive director of Providence Intown Churches Association. Since 1974, PICA has operated the pantry at the nearby Mathewson Street United Methodist Church.

The expanded program is needed, Burdette said at a news conference at the Washington Street church.

“Some may wonder why we need a food pantry in a revitalized city with luxury lofts,” she said. But since September, the number of people who use the pantry has jumped from 500 to nearly 1,300, a more-than-150-percent increase, she said.

“We’ve had a lot more families, children and the elderly,” added pantry supervisor George Gaffett. “These are people who drive up in nice cars, people who have lost their jobs or who are waiting on benefits.”

The expansion comes on the heels of a new report on hunger by the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. According to the agency, food pantries and soup kitchens served 13 million meals from September 2008 to August 2009, a 30-percent increase from the same year-ago period.

“A lot of it is the economy,” Burdett said. “People that used to be donors are now showing up at the pantry.”

In addition to the pantry, PICA also serves a hot meal to about 200 people on Friday night. The nonprofit organization — struggling with a decline in donations and funding — also offers transportation and outreach for the homeless. No fees are charged for the services.

At the former location, visitors were simply given a bag of food, Burdett said. The new location, he said, “is more like a grocery store, where people can shop from the shelves. It provides users a more dignified way to get food.”

The Champlin Foundations and the church helped pay for the move. The Rhode Island Food Bank donated a refrigerator and freezer.

Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse praised the agency for helping.

“Rhode Island is one of the hardest-hit states in the nation,” he said, referring to the state’s nearly 13-percent unemployment rate. “We can do a lot in Washington, but we can’t do everything. It takes communities” and agencies working together to meet the needs the growing poor, he said.

pdavis@projo.com