Local food providers offer volunteer experiences

In times like these, a whole community can understand the necessity of food pantries and meal services. That’s why it’s so fitting the Volunteer Series is highlighting the Pickerington Food Pantry and Meals on Wheels of Franklin County for this issue.

Pickerington Food Pantry

Volunteers are a vital aspect at the Pickerington Food Pantry. (These images were taken before the pandemic).

Normally, the Pickerington Food Pantry serves more than 600 people each month. Due to COVID-19, which led to many layoffs and furloughs, the pantry is supporting a much larger number.

“The number of people who need assistance has drastically increased due to those who have lost their positions, and yet they were the very people who typically made donations to the pantry,” says Vanessa Niekamp, executive director of the PFP. “We’re making sure all of those people that need our help now are getting our services so they don’t go hungry.”

As was expected of the Pickerington community, there has been an outpouring of support from residents wanting to lend a hand.

“We’ve had lots of people stepping up and wanting to volunteer, but we have to limit the number of people we have in the pantry,” Niekamp says.

To accommodate social distancing, there can only be eight volunteers and two staff members inside the pantry at one time. Instead of clients walking through the pantry with the volunteers, they simply drive by and have prepackaged boxes loaded into their car.

Niekamp makes clear that the pantry cannot function at any time without the help of their willing volunteers and donors. The pantry normally sees about 80 volunteers each month, some are regular faces while others are rotating, like National Honor Society students.

“We only have one full-time and two part-time employees,” says Niekamp. “We would not be able to function or provide the services to this community that we do without our volunteers.”

Making monetary donations is also beneficial, especially since the pantry receives no government funding. Every dollar donated becomes $11 worth of food through the Mid-Ohio Food Collective.

For more information on how to volunteer or help the pantry, visit www.pickeringtonfoodpantry.org.

Meals on Wheels of Fairfield County

"Clark Vandergrift"

Meals on Wheels helps seniors even more during the pandemic. (These images were taken before the pandemic).

The mission of Meals on Wheels is to provide seniors in need with a hot, fresh meal every day, and give them the engagement and entertainment they need to lead a healthy, happy life. Unfortunately, Meals on Wheels has also had to alter its typical operations in the face of COVID-19.

“It’s been a little crazy here,” says Anna Tobin, executive director of Meals on Wheels of Fairfield County. “We’ve had an outpouring of support from the community. It’s just been so heartwarming that we’ve had volunteers step up to the plate to help with absolutely everything.”

To follow the stay-at-home order and social distancing guidelines, Meals on Wheels altered its delivery schedule to Mondays and Thursdays, making sure to provide packaged and frozen meals for the remaining days. They also delivered two weeks’ worth of shelf-stable meals.

Meals on Wheels is also working hard to address the social isolation that some seniors face during the pandemic. It opened a telephone line that seniors can call whenever or to set up routine chats with a volunteer. The program also started including puzzles, word searches and other activities in its deliveries.

Of course, now and always, Meals on Wheels depends on volunteerism to provide the care that the community’s seniors need.

“Volunteering is really important to help us provide the magnitude of services,” Tobin says. “The senior population is going to continue to grow, and we need volunteers to help us serve this ever-increasing number.”

But it’s clear that volunteers are providing more than just a service. A lot of the volunteers befriend the clients. Volunteer driver Mark Tomson started in late 2018 and now makes 35 stops every week on his route.

“We, as delivery drivers with Meals on Wheels, may be the only human contact that person or couple has all day,” says Tomson. “There’s a story behind every one of them.”

Volunteers can call 740-681-5050 for a mail-in application or apply online at www.mowfc.org.

Common Misconception

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"Clark Vandergrift"

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The Pickerington Food Pantry provides its clients with more than just non-perishable items. Local grocery stores such as Kroger, Meijer and Discount Drug Mart provide the pantry with meat and fresh produce, which all goes directly to client homes the day it’s received.

Brittany Mosley is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.