Pickerington Food Pantry’s new executive director leads with compassion and connection

Todd Yarrington

Although Kaylie Eisel Fellers has been involved at Pickerington Food Pantry for several years and felt called to help others since childhood, leading the organization was never a part of her career plans.

Now, as the Pantry’s executive director and winner of the Pickerington Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2026 Emerging ATHENA Award, Fellers continues to bring new initiatives, ingenuity and a deep commitment to service to her role.

Call to service

Kaylie Eisel Fellers

A Pickerington native, Fellers’ initial draw to service began at an early age as she watched her dad, John Eisel, Violet Township fire chief and later director of operations, dedicate himself to the community through his profession. She says he was always a call away from dropping everything to help someone out – a lesson that Fellers absorbed.

Kaylie Eisel Fellers

Fellers with her father, John

“If we were at the grocery store, a birthday party, whatever it might be, if a call came through that was nearby… we would hop on that call, and so I got to watch firsthand him display that level of service and compassion to our neighbors in the community,” Fellers says. “I think that value just always instilled in me (that) there’s really no perfect time to help someone. As it arises, you just jump in, and you put both feet forward to help your neighbors out.”

Fellers felt inspired to work with animals – in part due to being surrounded by many pets at home. She attended Coastal Carolina University to study marine biology, later pivoting to earn her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies focusing on zookeeping and a minor in psychology.

Looking back, Fellers shares that her major and extracurriculars helped her build foundational skills for her work – from learning QuickBooks when she worked at Team Gear in high school to establishing leadership and community outreach skills in college in her roles as sorority president and a school ambassador.

During a holiday break visit back home from college, she volunteered at the Pickerington Food Pantry for the first time.

“(In) all these little steps along the way, I was really able to just build and build and build,” Fellers says.

The through-line of care

Following her graduation in 2015, Fellers returned to Ohio for an internship at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and began working part-time at an animal hospital. She maintained this dynamic for the next two years, stepping into seasonal zookeeping at the Columbus Zoo and into leadership at the animal hospital before scaling back to only working at the animal hospital.

Todd Yarrington

In January 2020, Fellers officially started her volunteering journey with the Pickerington Food Pantry. A few weeks later, she watched first-hand as the food pantry traversed the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and developed more seamless processes for client care, such as digitizing appointment scheduling – an experience that she cites as having prepared her for handling new challenges.

“I am thankful that I was able to see the procedures that went into place because things were changing weekly. At one point, we were doing pre-made boxes for clients, and we would put them in their trunk, so that way there wasn’t any kind of contact… It’s come such a long way,” Fellers says.

By August, Fellers became the pantry’s first Client Hours Supervisor – acting as managerial support to help train volunteers and oversee pantry shopping once a week – while still working full-time at the animal hospital.

She and her husband, Ian, married in October 2021, and welcomed their first daughter, Kendall, the following October. Fellers then transitioned to working at the pantry every other week and stepped away from the animal hospital, taking a remote role as an office manager for an HVAC company to stay at home for Kendall, and later their second daughter, Caroline, who was born in May 2024.

In the fall of 2024, the pantry’s Operations Coordinator, Renee Roberts, invited Fellers to shadow her so she could take over following Roberts’ retirement. Fellers held the role until August 2025, when the position opened for her to become executive director.

Next initiatives

From her time helping pantry shoppers as a volunteer, to stepping in with grant writing and connecting with donors as the executive director, Fellers shares that she stepped into the role with extensive knowledge of how the pantry works and had many ideas about new initiatives the organization could take on.

Todd Yarrington

She started with reaching out to past partnerships and establishing new connections for donations and support. Over time, this led her to connect with Bishop Store House for donations of multiple pallets of food, Bottoms Up for diapers and many other food and hygiene product vendors.

“I think (my experience) gives me that much more impact when I’m going to talk with potential donors or people that are interested in coming to volunteer at the pantry. I’m able to speak on every kind of facet of the pantry with that wisdom of having done it,” she shares.

During her first few months, the national government shutdown led to an increased demand due to its impact on SNAP. Fellers worked with the City Council to grant funding for an additional shopping day each week for a total of six weeks, feeding an additional 61 households a total of 5,400 meals.

Over time, she has also introduced several new initiatives – including senior baskets to donate additional hygiene care and treats for Older Americans Month in May, Crunch for a Cause – a cereal drive competition with the schools – and a Volunteer of the Month social media spotlight initiative.

As she looks to the future, Fellers is reestablishing the partnership with the Fire Department’s annual holiday toy drive to donate food stockings and looks forward to implementing many more new initiatives to help the community.

“I have a heart for Pickerington. If there’s anything about (me), I love this community, I love all the great things that people are doing here. There’s a lot of caring individuals, and it’s really rewarding getting to watch those people help people and help our neighbors in need,” Fellers says.