Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano took to social media to call supporters of the Milpitas Food Pantry haters and bigots, escalating a months-long dispute over the nonprofit's rock-bottom rent and its refusal to expand operating hours. The pantry, which provides food, clothing and supplies to people in need, has occupied a city-owned building at 1440 S. Main Street for a nominal fee while Montano pushes to raise that rent toward market rate or open the door to a competing operator.
According to The Milpitas Beat, Montano demanded the pantry open on Sundays and threatened to raise its rent after the organization declined, a threat Councilmember Lam also backed. The pantry has challenged the accuracy of the mayor's statements, and the Beat's report notes no evidence was presented showing residents had complained about the pantry's current hours, with people instead reporting no such complaints at all.
The rent itself tells a long story. The pantry has leased the Main Street facility since 2011, originally paying $1,600 a month before Montano, then a councilmember, proposed dropping the rate to $1 per month in 2014. A cost-of-living adjustment has since nudged that figure to $1.21 a month, according to a separate Milpitas Beat report, a stark contrast to pantry representatives' estimate of market rent at over $5,000 per month for the same space.
Why the Pantry Says Sundays Don't Add Up
The pantry currently operates just nine hours a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon — down from 19 weekly hours before the pandemic, as its active volunteer base shrank from 25 to seven, per the Beat's reporting. The nonprofit experienced that volunteer decline directly tied to COVID-era disruptions, a constraint organizers say makes adding Sunday hours impractical.
There's also the question of redundancy. On Sundays, the nonprofit Hope for the Unhoused already uses the same parking lot to provide services, including showers and food distribution, roughly 50 feet from the pantry's entrance.
Montano's Letter Lists Grievances, Proposes RFP
In a public letter published in June, Montano laid out a broader case against the pantry, the Beat's report notes. She threatened to create a Request for Quote from other organizations and pointed to missed $1 monthly rent payments during a two-year pandemic stretch, a failure to expand outreach when federal SNAP benefits dropped in 2025, and changes to school donation policies during the Jack Emery Food Drive.
Montano considered creating a request for quote from other organizations and at one point threatened to seek a quote for a competing food pantry altogether, though the Beat reports she later backed down from her proposal to raise the rent. The back-and-forth has left the pantry's future tenancy terms unresolved even as a formal status report heads to the city council.
Jack Emery Drive's Outsized Role
The Jack Emery Food Drive carries particular weight in this dispute. The pantry has a partnership with the drive.
Council Weighs Subsidy Over Rent Hike
Not every council member backs Montano's approach. Councilmember Hon Lien said the pantry is a valuable resource and suggested the city instead provide it with a $5,000 monthly subsidy for 24 months if financial support proves necessary — an alternative that would keep the nonprofit's rent intact rather than pushing it toward market rate.
The Milpitas City Council placed the matter on its October 6 meeting agenda as Item 16, directing staff to deliver a formal status report and guidance on tenancies at 1432-1446 South Main Street, the broader property that includes the pantry's space, according to city meeting records. At an October 7 meeting, residents showed up to support the pantry, and the council reached a consensus to address the issue further, though the report notes public comment at a September meeting had already pressed city leadership for transparency on why the staff report had been delayed ahead of its October placement.
The dispute arrives as Milpitas's municipal politics remain in flux following other recent friction involving Montano's leadership, including a fight over Cesar Chavez Plaza earlier this year. Staff were expected to bring information forward on the food pantry matter.
