For 15 years our church has had a Food Pantry which gives out food to whomever comes on the first Friday of the month. We are a distributor of food from the Thomas Jefferson Area Food Bank, a USDA food organization. They also receive food from food drives and donations from overage in production and grocery stores.

The “big” Pantry in town is Loaves and Fishes, who offer food three days a week to many, many more customers. We are a small service who acknowledges we serve a particular group of folks who appreciate our hospitality and who, necessarily, usually need to have a car to take the volume of food we give away on our once a month basis. We have questioned whether we actually offer a needed service, but have been told by the Food Bank and have concluded, that a small service is important to those who come to us.

This year we received and gave out 2500 lbs of food per month to an average of 80 people. We spent $108/month. We purchased 100 grocery gift cards ($25) for folks to buy turkeys for Thanksgiving. The remaining cards are used as Thanksgiving and Christmas feast cards for our own congregants who experience food scarcity and as part of the minister’s discretionary funds.

If you are interested in participating in the Food Pantry on the first Friday of every month, sorting fresh vegetables into individual bags, helping with the paperwork of intake or hauling food on hand-trucks, please let us know by contacting Elizabeth Breeden, brs@cstone.net

It is indeed a lot of fun to feed people.