Expanding Compassion

Community food pantry plots move to much larger facility

With the economy still in a downswing, need is growing in Pickerington – and the community’s food pantry is growing with it.

Plans are under way for the PCMA Food Pantry of Pickerington to move to a new, larger location not too far from its current one. Taking into consideration the existing facility and two off-site locations for storage, the food pantry has a total of about 1,000 square feet for storage; the new facility alone offers triple that.

The current facility has been located for the past 18 years on the lower level of the old Carnegie Library at 15 E. Columbus St. The Pickerington Historical Society allows the food pantry to use its meeting room as a registration and waiting area for clients, but that area cannot be used for storage.

Clients may visit the food pantry once every 28 days. In each visit, they receive enough food to provide three meals a day for eight days, based on the number of family members.

Canned and packaged foods fill the neatly organized shelves at the current facility. A typical visit could provide a client with eight days of frugal but filling meals – chili, spaghetti, soups, sandwiches, hot dogs, cereal and macaroni and cheese, along with sides of vegetables and fruits. The one working freezer holds hot dogs, chicken breasts and hamburger, and portioned packages of lunchmeat are in the refrigerator, along with a few boxes of eggs.

“We’ll be able to offer more dairy products when we move to the new location,” says Dianna Kassouf, food pantry executive director. “We really need more refrigeration units. Right now, we have some off-site storage, but we need to get it all under one roof.”

Food insecurity doesn’t always show. According to Feeding America, a U.S. hunger relief organization, more than 50 million Americans don’t always know if they will have enough to eat, and one in food. And the need for food assistance in the Pickerington area is increasing. In September 2010, the PCMA Food Pantry had served 701 families. At the same point in 2011, the pantry had served 878 families, a 25 percent increase.

While donations from the community make the program possible, more support is now in place. Since March 2010, the pantry has been receiving assistance from the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. And the move to the larger facility is affordable thanks to a grant from United Way of Fairfield County; the pantry has been a United