Food pantry takes stock at new home - ThisWeekNews

Food pantry takes stock at new home - ThisWeekNews

The brown paper bags full of food were packed and lined up on the counter of the Hilliard Food Pantry on Nov. 26. All were tagged with a name and an assigned pickup time.

One by one, the people whose names were upon the tags filed in at their scheduled times to receive the help they needed during the holiday weekend.

Some were there for the first time; others had been to the pantry before.

Two women, Pam Humphrey and Lisa Varner, selected fresh pizzas from Little Caesars to take home and watch the Ohio State-Michigan football game.

Varner, a Michigan native, said she recently moved from Tennessee after being widowed to stay with Humphrey in Hilliard.

Another woman, 39, with a juvenile son living at home, said she found herself in need of assistance from the food pantry for only the second time.

The woman, who did not want to give her name, said she is divorcing.

"As a newly single mother, it's all I can do to keep up with all the (utility) bills," said the woman, who has a job in the field of home-health care. "Luckily, my son isn't picky (about food)."

Such stories are familiar to Debbie Smith, the executive director of the Hilliard Food Pantry. She has been the executive director of the food pantry for the past 10 years since its previous director, Wallace Cash, asked her to succeed him.

Cash, 91, spent 18 years overseeing the operations of the food pantry, which has been serving residents of Hilliard and the city's school district since 1963.

The food pantry once was in a cramped, nondescript building that has been Hilliard's City Hall and police station. It is on Norwich Street just north of Main Street and behind what was then an IGA grocery store and today is a lawn-mower retailer.

"When I was in charge of the pantry, we had a committee made up from members of all the churches," Cash said.

About 18 months ago, the food pantry, having long since outgrown the city-owned structure, moved to a larger facility at 5454 Franklin St.

The new pantry and warehouse is attached to the Hilliard Civic and Cultural Arts Center that opened in September at 5425 Center St.

The pantry leases the space from the city for $1 a year, Smith said, mirroring the lease agreement at the former site.

The new food pantry resembles an Eisenhower-era supermarket once seen in any small town: canned food, boxes of cereal and bread line shelves behind a checkout counter where customers place and receive orders.

Most of the customers have appointments, arranged by calls to the pantry or through online registration, but there usually are a few walk-ins.

Smith keeps a bag under the counter tagged for walk-ins, and last Saturday morning, a woman without an appointment came to the pantry.

Residency in the Hilliard school district is the only requirement to receive assistance but the woman did not live in the district.

Smith gave her the bag of food anyway and recommended several regional agencies, such as the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.

"We give anyone who comes here something to get them by until they can get more help," Smith said.

The Hilliard Food Pantry currently assists 193 families, she said. They are limited to one visit a month.

A staff of 30 regular volunteers makes operating the food pantry possible.

Staff members include Bruce Higginbotham, a 66-year-old retiree from Anderson Concrete.

He said his church made donations to the pantry but he wanted to help more.

"I stopped by two years ago) and asked (Smith) if they needed help," Higginbotham said.

Kim Goff and her son, Dylan Goff, a 15-year-old sophomore at Darby High School, spent the morning of Nov. 26 stocking back shelves with the most recent donations the pantry has received.

Dylan said he wanted to help after his baseball team contributed last year to the Mid-Ohio Foodbank.

The school district is among the pantry's regular donors, along with Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, such service organizations as the local Kiwanis and Lions clubs and corporations.

Last week, the Hilliard district completed a "friendly competition" among its school buildings and the central office.

The district collected 950 bags of food for the pantry, said spokeswoman Stacie Raterman.

The pantry isn't always so well stocked, Smith said, adding that while she is thankful for any and all assistance, the pantry sometimes struggles to meet demand in the summer.

"We do all we can to help," she said, including utility-bill assistance and a Christmas program to provide toys.

To make donations or register to receive assistance, call the Hilliard Food Pantry at 614-363-4159 or visit hilliardfoodpantry.org. The pantry is open by appointment from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Tuesday; from 6 to 7:15 p.m. each Thursday; and from 10:45 a.m. to noon each Saturday.

kcorvo@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekCorvo