The Houston Community Food Shelf has changed its name as it seeks 501-C-3 status to become a tax-exempt organization.

President Teresa Erickson says the group has had a tremendous amount of growth over the past 15 years since it was organized and will now be called Houston Community Food Basket.

Erickson says the group has gone from serving several families to serving 22 to 25 families weekly with the average number of people being 56 per week.

Erickson says they believe they should seek the charitable status so it can operate in all the legal requirements of an organization of the size and scope it has become.

The 501-C-3 status also provides the organization with the opportunity to publicly solicit funds to support its work.

Approval of the status by the I-R-S is expected to take several months.

About 12-thousand-800 dollars was contributed to the organization in 2011.