SESSION THREE
At the Intersection of Health and Hunger Chad Akers, Director, Hungry Lambs Food Initiative Michelle Akers, Program Administrator, The Fresh Start Program Brandi Browning, Director of Community Services, PRIDE Community Services
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Sometimes, around our state, local programs build a ground-up, collaborative approach to respond to its community needs. While it’s hard to know where these great collaborations are happening, we heard from one group in Logan County that has taught us the benefits and challenges of working together. Hungry Lambs Food Initiative is a food pantry that opened in 1991 at the First Presbyterian Church of Logan. It has grown over the years with the support the church and local donors, but the sudden increase in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a move to its new location at the Logan County Resource Center. For years, like many food pantries around the state, Hungry Lambs was staffed by volunteers who were older adults. Because they were a demographic more likely to get sick from COVID-19, they could not continue to keep the pantry open to meet the increased demand for services, which was also created by the pandemic. And so, Chad Akers, a local businessman whose mother was one of the pantry’s volunteers, agreed to step in as director. Hungry Lambs primarily serves Logan County, as well as parts of Mingo and Boone. According to Chad, at the pandemic’s peak, Hungry Lambs averaged 175 to 200 families a month who received food boxes via drive-thru services. In 2020, the population of Peach Creek was estimated at 348 people. It was a surprisingly
high number of residents from Logan and surrounding counties traveling to Peach Creek for assistance. Like many food pantries around the area, Hungry Lambs contracts with Facing Hunger Foodbank. Some of the food it receives is free; some must be purchased. It also orders discounted food from Kroger. And so, there are overhead and operating expenses to keep the pantry viable. The overhead grows as need and capacity increase. With the recent move to the Logan County Resource Center, Hungry Lambs found itself with the opportunity to serve as a community hub for both health and hunger services. Chad described it as “one-stop shopping.” Its community partnerships have included: The Logan County Health Department (which has a remote office in the Resource Center), Coalfield Health Center, the Quick Response Team in Logan County, the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition, and teams of emergency medical technicians. BUILDING BRIDGES AT THE COMMUNITY LEVEL
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