Olean Food Pantry expansion gets a helping hand - Olean Times Herald

Olean Food Pantry expansion gets a helping hand - Olean Times Herald

OLEAN — The ground had just been broken for the building project at the Olean Food Pantry when board members received news they would receive a $10,000 grant for the project from the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation.

Community Foundation officials said the grant was provided through their Food for the Future Challenge Grant and is their largest ever board-designated grant to help fund the food pantry’s $163,000 capital project. Community Foundation officials said the funds come from an account designed to finance efforts that will have a major impact on the community or its residents.

“We continue to be impressed with the work and vision of the board and volunteers who run the Olean Food Pantry,” said Karen Buchheit, executive director of the foundation. “We awarded this grant because of their excellent track record in not only serving the needs of the people they serve, but also the needs of the other local food pantries for which the Food Pantry is a hub.

“By supporting this project, we are in essence also supporting eight other organizations that meet the needs of local residents who need help feeding their families healthy and nutritious food.”

Buchheit said the challenge grant provides a greater opportunity for the food pantry to attract new donations for the project. The grant will match every gift to the building campaign, dollar for dollar, up to $10,000. The pantry’s drive to raise the matching building funds officially began Thursday and will close Jan. 23.

When food pantry officials announced the expansion in early September, they said the 32-by-20 foot expansion, comprising 1,500 square feet, was needed for extra food storage. Additional supplies and storage are essential for the ever-growing need of the impoverished in the area. Last year alone, the pantry provided food for 140,000 meals consumed by 800 families who visited the facility.

The addition will enable the food pantry to provide a covered loading area to protect volunteers during distribution, create more space to purchase more food at better prices and provide more room to enhance the client waiting area and education center, officials said.

Construction of the project was started in November by students from Alfred State’s Building Trades program. The project is part of the students’ curriculum for the year. While the students’ services are donated, the food pantry is responsible for all materials and design work associated with the project.

“I am completely blown away by the generosity of the community we live in,” said food pantry co-manager, Christie Brook. “The Food for the Future Challenge exemplifies the caring spirit of the (Community Foundation), an organization that really does make a difference in the lives of people in the Olean area and beyond.”

Brook said the ongoing work is causing some situations food pantry officials had to creatively overcome.

“We are trying to take our deliveries in the front door which is a huge task and the tractor-trailer delivery had to be reconfigured a bit,” she explained. “That was complicated by the rain, but Randy and Matt Ewings from Hillside Landscaping came to the rescue with their forklift.”

She said Alfred State students also helped move several pallets of food out of the way, allowing for the eight other agencies to more easily receive their orders.

“People coming into the pantry ask, ‘What's going on’ all the time and are very excited when we explain the project to them,” Brook continued. “That includes the people we serve, people who come with donations and people delivering materials for the project.”

BROOK AND other officials said the food pantry is a volunteer organization that tries to provide food security by offering choices of nutritious food to recipients.

To learn more, volunteer or donate, visit http://ift.tt/2gG7DZN, visit the Facebook page at http://ift.tt/2hkce7M or call 372-4989.

For more information on the Community Foundation, call 301-2723, email foundation@cattfoundation.org or visit cattfoundation.org. CRCF is also on Facebook at http://ift.tt/2cwu58l and Twitter at @CattFoundation.

(Contact reporter Kate Day Sager at kates_th@yahoo.com)