The Pantry

About

The Pantry is a multifaceted non-profit with the goal of feeding the mind, body & soul in southeastern Kent County.

Story

Who We Are
The Pantry (formerly the John Knox Community Food Pantry) is a multi-faceted non-profit, serving those with the greatest need. Our volunteers and donors represent dozens of faith communities, social clubs, agencies, and businesses. The Pantry provides holistic aid to our neighbors in need by supplying them, with food and personal care items that they desperately need now, as well as tools of empowerment, through education and one-on-one case management. Our goal is to equip our neighbors to transform their own lives – body, mind & soul – in the long-term.
Our Story
The Pantry started as a ministry of the John Knox Presbyterian Church in 1985 in response to growing community needs. As the Pantry continued to grow, we joined the Access Pantry Network in 1991 and finally incorporated as a separate 501c3 in 2014. The third largest pantry in Kent County we cover a 45 square mile area in the southern portion of the county. The Pantry operates on a very lean budget, a quarter the size of many pantries of similar size and without the luxury of the safety of an endowment fund or significant personal property. From providing a couple days’ worth of groceries for 10 families a week, to providing a week’s worth of groceries for 185 families a week at present, we’ve grown to meet the growing needs of the community.
How we Serve
Food Insecurity Relief
The Pantry provides half-a-million meals for 10,000 local families a year. Neighbors are able to visit the Pantry once a month, yet most visit an average of three times a year. As a USDA Commodities distribution site, we reach another 3,250 food-insecure households a year, including a large number of fixed-income seniors.
Summer Meals and Engagement
During the summer months the Pantry serves as a Meet Up and Eat Up site. Through a partnership with the Grand Rapids Public Schools and the USDA we try to make a connection with some of the 20,000 children who live in poverty in our service area who are in need of balanced, free meals when school is out of session. In 2014, our first year of Meet Up & Eat Up, we served 150 meals a week. Our hope is to double the participation rate this year and offer a reading hour and book giveaways throughout the summer in conjunction with meal times.
Nutritional Options for Wellness (N.O.W.) Pantry
Our N.O.W. Pantry provides weekly groceries for low-income neighbors diagnosed with a chronic disease, these healthy alternatives help them to heal and manage health conditions. We are currently serving 35 individuals in the N.O.W. program each week. One of our first N.O.W. Pantry clients, Teresa, was able to avoid having to be hospitalized for severe weight loss due to her condition when she began receiving food each week from the Pantry. Almost a year later, Teresa is still strong and vivacious and has avoided having to have that feeding tube put in.
Healthy Lifestyles Promotion
The Pantry partners with Spectrum Health, the YMCA, MSU Extension and others to offer classes in: exercise, healthy eating and meal preparation, smoking cessation and more. We also gift a 4’ x 4’ raised garden to several families each year who come to the Pantry to attend classes, receive supplies and guidance in raising vegetables in a raised garden, which they then own and manage for themselves at home. In this manner, we are adding each year to the number of people growing their own food in our community. In 2014, two neighbors, Robin and William were able to grow tens of pounds of tomatoes and peppers and several pounds of green beans. They had enough to share with a third friend and are looking forward to participating again this year.
Case Management
Staff takes the time to work one-on-one with our neighbors, often providing them with referrals to additional services and resources. We are a DHS Navigator Site and work with neighbors to connect them with SNAP and other assistance that might be available to them. We assist our neighbors in connecting with Veterans Services, Disability Advocates and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services. We facilitate paperwork and make referrals for services and goods that are outside of our capacity to provide, such as diapers, formula, housing and furniture needs.
Seasonal and Holiday Assistance
We also provide seasonal assistance to make the holidays bright for our neighbors. We are a Toys-4-Tots sign-up and distribution site and help connect hundreds of donors with families in need through the Access Holiday Giving Network for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Building for the Future
When John Knox began providing food to those in need in 1985, The Pantry a women in the congregation worked out their car trunks providing for a few neighbors in need. Gradually, The Pantry expanded to a closet, then a room and then to utilizing the entire basement level of the church. The Pantry grew from a handful of families a month to nearly 800. To provide groceries and services to that many families requires a great deal more space and manpower than we currently have. In 2014, 170 volunteers helped distribute over 700,000 pounds of foods from local donors to our neighbors. Moving 60,000 pounds of food a month requires a fleet or vehicles, thousands of square feet, extensive equipment and hundreds of labor hours. Our current offices make it difficult to protect the privacy of our neighbors during case management.
Our current facility also limits both the food offerings and services in the N.O.W. Pantry. With new space we plan to offer more case management and additional services to include a diabetic foot care clinic, smoking cessation, budgeting classes and low-impact yoga. We have plans to expand the Meet Up and Eat Up programs to include a reading program for kids that not only provides onsite reading, but also books to take home for the family.
Compassion Responds
Expanding programs is only possible with new, expanded facilities that provide appropriate space for pallets of food, hi-lows and safe space for our neighbors to access our vital programs. To make this dream a reality The Pantry needs you. The Pantry needs your help as it takes on the compassionate task of transforming this community, one life at a time.
Our hope is to partner with you in creating a hunger-free community. You can help your neighbors and support the continued growth of The Pantry with your gifts of time, talent and treasure.
Take the next step and connect for change.

Mission

The Pantry desires to feed the hungry through mind, body and soul.