Co-op aids food pantry
By Kevin Dye
Staff Writer
The need for assistance for area families has been on the rise for months. But thanks to a generous donation and a small army of volunteers, a Christmas meal will be provided for hundreds of needy families in London.
The Heritage Cooperative, a locally owned farmer cooperative with 30 branches serving 20 central Ohio counties, recently conducted its fourth annual Harvest Food Drive to collect donations for local food pantries. On Wednesday morning London branch manager, Andy Bauer, visited the Madison County Food Pantry and presented volunteers with a check for $5,381.25.
That donation included $750 from the Land O’ Lakes Foundation’s matching funds for the Feeding Our Communities program. The remainder came from the donations that the London branch collected from bushels of grain and cash donations from their local farmers, employees and the community.
The Madison County Food Pantry serves those less fortunate who reside in the London mailing area. The pantry has seen a steady rise in the number of people who come to them for assistance to feed their families.
“We have seen the need grow steadily this fall,” pantry director Jim Witwer said. “In August we served 327 families and in September we saw it go up to 369 families. In October we served 360 families and I just got the November numbers that show we served 375 families. Last year for Christmas we helped 354 families and I expect that we will help at least that many this year.”
While on the surface a $5,000 donation sounds like a lot money (and it certainly is a generous and needed donation), the reality of the situation is that it costs a lot of money to feed that many families a meal. Witwer said that food boxes to feed 300 families will cost right around $5,000. It is an ongoing battle to feed that many families each month, but the Madison County Food Pantry has a lot of friends and volunteers that help each month.
“The community, community businesses and local churches help us with our mission,” Witwer said. “Without their help we could not do this work.”
One of the pantry’s biggest supporters is the Save A Lot grocery store in London, who Witwer said runs a voucher system to assist the pantry in getting food items to needy families. The store not only helps with the mailing of the vouchers to the families that the pantry assists, it also orders and sets aside items to make sure those items are there for the families on the pantry’s list.
“We pay $16 for each voucher and that helps to feed a family with three to five family members,” Witwer said. “We also give an additional bag of food supplies to help larger sized families. Our typical box of food supplies will provide four to five days worth of meals for a family.”
The Madison County Food Pantry has a loyal core of volunteers that help with the food distribution and stocking of supplies and each month a different area church supplies the pantry with volunteers from their congregation and brings food and cash donations as they can afford to help the pantry.
Among those churches active each month are Trinity Episcopal, St. Patrick Church, Newport Church of Christ, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, United Methodist of London, St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal, United Methodist Church, Lafayette Charge, London Church of Nazarene, Trinity United Methodist of Lilly Chapel, Greater Bethel Apostolic, and Fountain of Truth Ministries.
The Madison County Food Pantry is located at 137 Maple St. in London. Their hours of operation and distribution are from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday and Saturday. To receive assistance persons must be a resident of the London mailing address. Persons must show a picture ID and proof of a London mailing address to register. Contact the pantry at (740) 852-5822 for more information about services or to donate to the pantry.
