Pickerington food pantry fighting hunger, feeding hope

The Family Pantry

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With food baskets and welcoming arms, the Pickerington Food Pantry is a warm embrace for families in need.

Every Thursday and Saturday, the pantry opens its doors to families and individuals to pick items from its collection of fruits and vegetables, milk, eggs, frozen meat, proteins, pastas, beans, breads, soups, condiments, and cereals, to amount to three meals a day for five days for each member of their household.

The food pantry is aided by various volunteers, from National Honor Society students and church service groups to families and more. Its team members are an integral part of the atmosphere at the food pantry, as they get to know pantry clients on a personal level and love serving the community. Pantry volunteers and team members are known to learn their clients’ preferences quickly based on their selections each week.

The food at the pantry comes from a community effort to serve these families: frozen meat from the local Kroger, Aldi, Meijer and Giant Eagle; discounted items from the Mid-Ohio Food Collective; and donated items from individuals and organizations. There is even a Pickerington Local School District program that allows students to donate their untouched fruit, vegetables and milk to the pantry.

“Our seniors especially love our individual-sized items,” Vanessa Niekamp, executive director at the pantry, says. “It’s a way for kids in our schools to give back.”

From July 2022 to June 2023, the pantry held 8,496 individual services, serving 268 households and 1,080 people. The client demographics of the pantry are constantly shifting, as it served 494 new people this past year from different races, ethnicities, educational levels, employment statuses and military backgrounds.

“We are starting to be as diverse as our community,” Niekamp says.

Pickerington resident Eva Dixon started volunteering with the pantry in 2018, and she has been involved in all facets of volunteering, including grocery store pickups, client drop-offs and client interactions. She volunteers on the first and third Saturday of each month while working two jobs.

“Volunteering is so different from getting a paycheck,” Dixon says. “I get pleasure that I am helping someone. … The feeling that makes you all cozy inside.”

Another volunteer, Paul Cox, comes in every Saturday with his wife, Nancy Miller, to do grocery pickups and client shopping. They are both retired and deeply involved in their community, as Cox moderates and judges events with the Ohio State Bar Mock Trial Program and Miller coordinates weekly programs at a local parish. They both organize summer events in the community as well. Niekamp emphasizes that Cox and Miller are frequent donors to the food pantry and that they are a couple of the pantry’s many contributors who “pay to volunteer.”

Every volunteer does it because they are dedicated to and care about their community, and Rick Chrysler is no exception. Chrysler volunteers his time by making food pickups for the pantry while working as the co-director of The Foundation Dinners in Lancaster. The Foundation Dinners serves lunch and dinner to up to 125 people per day, 365 days a year, all thanks to donations from the community.

Chrysler is, at the time of writing, awaiting a heart transplant, but he doesn’t let that stop him from doing his part to serve the community.

“I don’t even know how I got down here,” Chrysler says. “(But) I’m here whenever I have time.”

Chrysler is also focused on reducing waste at the pantry. Unused food products are donated to The Foundation Dinners and other organizations like it so that it’s not going to waste and is going to families who need it.

The food pantry’s greatest needs are monetary donations and products such as dairy, condiments, flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, broths, breakfasts, canned meat and peanut butter. Toiletries are also highly coveted items, as they are not government-subsidized or covered by food stamps.

Monetary donations aren’t just used for food items, but also for appliance purchases and regular maintenance to keep the building safe and effective to serve its important task: to feed the community. Monetary donations are also key because, Niekamp says, every dollar donated translates to $10 of retail items thanks to the pantry’s partnership with the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, which connects the pantry with bulk items at-cost.

The pantry also serves as a family and a community to its clients, ensuring that everyone gets what they need, whether that is extra food for their children or appointments for future services.

“We never send anyone home hungry,” Niekamp says.

Jane Dimel is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.

Frosted Flakes Muffins

Ingredients:

⅓ cup of oil

1 egg

1 cup of milk

3 cups of Frosted Flakes (crushed to 1 cup)

⅓ cup of brown sugar (packed)

1 cup of flour

2 tsp. of baking powder

¼ cup of sugar

1 tsp. of cinnamon

½ tsp. of salt

⅓ cup of chopped nuts

Directions:

  • First, preheat the oven to 400 F.
  • Next, combine the eggs, oil and milk in a small bowl and add the Frosted Flakes when done. Let sit for five minutes before stirring in the brown sugar.
  • Proceed to stir the remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and add the cereal mixture until it has moistened.
  • Line the tin with 12 paper baking cups.
  • Spoon the new mixture into the baking cups, then bake for 20-25 minutes.
  • Finally, add any topping of choice, such as a brush of melted butter with cinnamon sugar on top.

Recipe courtesy of cooks.com. www.cooks.com Copyright 2023 The FOURNet Information Network. All rights reserved.