Food pantry helps families cut grocery bills when other expenses arise

Volunteers placed box after box of nourishment into the vehicles of hungry Galion residents Tuesday afternoon in the parking lot of the city's middle school.

"These people don't want to have to come here," said Susan Bartosch, vice president of external affairs for Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio.

Thanks to the event, though, about 500 Galion families received enough food to keep themselves fed for at least another week.

That's a typical number of customers during one of the city's monthly mobile food pantries.

Those in need range from older adults to young families — the most common customer is a single mother of two.

Each dollar feeds seven people

The food distributed during the drive-thru food pantries is acquired each month by Bartosch's team at Second Harvest.

The nonprofit organization uses financial donations to purchase food from local grocers and larger retailers at bulk rates significantly cheaper than shoppers could ever find in stores.

"For every $1 that gets donated, we can provide seven meals," Bartosch said.

Funding for Tuesday's food pantry in Galion came entirely from Anthem. Other months, it comes by way of cumulated private donations, which can be made online at secondharvestfoodbank.org.

The organization also receives occasional bulk donations from Feeding America.

"We're in the network where at times, with the corporate partnerships that they might have, we would have access to some things that might be an overrun," Bartosch said. "So we might get 1,000 pounds of cereal donated to us."

Food can even come from grocers after shelf-stable foods have reached their sell-by date but have not yet expired.

"Instead of throwing it out, we'll go get it," Bartosch said.

Online registration for recipients and volunteers

Recipients at Tuesday's mobile pantry were given sacks of potatoes, heads of red cabbage, acorn squash, frozen turkeys, hamburger patties, bratwurst as well as various bags and boxes of shelf-stable items such as pasta and rice.

"Probably 50-60 pounds of food," Bartosch said.

Residents of Crawford County who need food are asked to register before attending a mobile pantry.

"It's basically financial," Bartosch said.

Once they are accepted, participants are asked drive to the middle school and line their vehicles up after checking in. Most arrive early.

"This started at four o'clock," Bartosch said. "I got here about 3:15 ... this whole area was all full already."

There were about two dozen volunteers on hand Tuesday to direct the vehicles through the pantry. Folks remain in their vehicles as staff load them with food.

Anyone who wants to give their time to help work a future pantry is encouraged to submit their information through the organization's website.

"Some of them work for the schools, some are community members, there's local churches that volunteer," Bartosch said.

Pantries provide food when other expenses arise

While there were 500 Galion families who received food Tuesday, that number fluctuates each month.

The trend seems to be that average need is increasing, which in turn makes the importance of donations even greater.

Financial validation is good for a year, but that doesn't mean everyone visits all 12 food pantries each year.

"There are people that are registered, but might only come once," Bartosch said. "Average number of times people attend is three times to six times in a year."

Attendance fluctuates with every obligation that hits monthly budgets. Families in general would prefer buying food with their own money, but some months that just isn't possible.

"What many times goes in the slippery slope is the food," Bartosch explained. "They're going to pay their rent, they're going to pay a lot of things first before getting to food.

"Sometimes they can make it in a month and they're fine, but sometimes the car breaks down or some other expense blows the budget."

ztuggle@gannett.com

419-564-3508

Twitter: @zachtuggle

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Food pantry helps families eat during months when expenses arise