In 1968, a family in Almina Smock’s church, St. Paul, was in need. A mother had passed away due to health complications after giving birth to her sixth child, and Smock knew she needed to help. She began coordinating food donations for the family. Soon, she was running a full-blown food pantry out of her garage, complete with clothes and toy donations.
That effort, Paul’s Pantry, lasted years with Smock independently organizing from home until the operation became so large that it needed a separate, bigger space and to be formally incorporated.
In 1972, the pantry transitioned into the organization that eventually become Westerville Area Resource Ministry. Now, WARM is commemorating half a century of feeding people in need. The organization is celebrating throughout the year with a party on July 15.
“We are acknowledging how amazing this journey has been serving the Westerville community for 50 years,” says Dana Lawrence, director of development and communication for WARM. “We are an organization that went from being operated in one person’s home to being acknowledged as a community partner by the city, the school district and the library.”
Today, WARM serves the 52-square-mile Westerville City School District, home to about 120,000 residents and close to 45,000 households, according to WARM Executive Director Scott Marier. Marier took his role with the organization in 2005 and has overseen considerable growth in his nearly 17 years there.
He’s overseen an organization growing in most every way. WARM has gone from chest-high refrigerators to walk-in fridges and freezers – the largest 800 square feet – and has moved from one van to a truck, bus and van. For a more general gauge: the organization’s annual budget has moved from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions.
While he’s celebrating WARM’s history, Marier has his eye firmly on the future.
“Some of our immediate goals are to help reach people that are currently in need but unreached, there’s always the issue of capacity,” he says. “How do we serve more people in need within our service territory? And not only how we serve more people, but how do we help them more effectively? It’s not just broad but it’s deep and our programming is tailored to that. What we recognize, and the emphasis we’re placing, is that it takes more than food to change your life.”
Beyond increasing the ability to feed people in need, WARM has expanded programs to better serve the community.
One program, Thrive, pairs participants with a transformation coach who helps set actionable goals and makes connections to any services the client might need. Thrive works to improve one’s food security, life stability and self-sufficiency. Similarly, the Way2Work program supports unemployed or underemployed people by providing personal coaching, career exploration and skills building.
Since the turn of the century, the organization has worked to better and more humanely meet people’s needs. That includes a shift in perspective toward food choice programs. Rather than a person receiving a standardized grocery supply, choice allows recipients to choose foods fit to their tastes and dietary needs. That gives clients a renewed sense of dignity and decreases food waste.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, WARM went as far as creating an online choice program that allowed clients to browse an inventory and continue choosing their food even when in-person access to the pantry was limited.
Scott Marier
Those initiatives are all part of WARM’s forward-thinking mindset.
“Our focus is not so much looking back at the past 50, but really preparing to launch how we serve the community for the next 50,” Marier says. “Instead of looking in the rearview mirror, we’re looking through the windshield.”
WARM celebrates its anniversary with a 1970s themed party, calling back to its early years, on July 15 at the Renaissance Columbus Westerville-Polaris Hotel. The whole community is invited to enjoy live music, a raffle, wine pull, photo booth, hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. All proceeds from the ticket sales support WARM programming. Visit www.warmwesterville.org to purchase tickets.
Juliana Colant is a senior editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
