Two vinyl storage cabinets and a couple of wooden crates on Katie Hughes' front porch hold food and household items that may keep a family from having to choose between buying gas to get to work and buying diapers for the baby, or between washing clothes and making a hot meal.
"This is meant to supplement what low-income families have," said Hughes, an ICU nurse at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital.
The cabinets contain things like toilet paper, cereal, diapers, laundry soap, toothpaste, bread and canned goods. Hughes has advertised the pantry on Facebook. It's open 24-7. Anyone is welcome to help themselves to what they need at the little pantry at 5216 Jordan St., at the southwest corner of 52nd Avenue in Allendale.
Hughes, a member of the outreach committee at her Hudsonville church, believed God was calling her to start a food pantry. She knew there were other support agencies offering food and clothing, like Love INC and Jehovah Jireh Ministries, but found accessing them could be difficult.
"They had limited hours," Hughes said. "It wasn't always convenient to come in the middle of the day." Also, she believed many people didn't need to be official clients of the agencies. They just needed the occasional small supplement to their weekly budget, and the supply needed to be available around the clock.
Hughes ran into problems trying to create and staff such a food pantry at church, and finally decided it was God's will for her to start one at her home. Hughes had one cabinet that she had bought to hold gardening tools. She put the tools in the garage and, from her own funds, stocked it with non-perishables. That was in early November.
Since then, another cabinet and a couple of wooden crates have been donated and filled with goods by the community.
Hughes is aware that she might be at risk by opening her property to the public, and said she hesitated briefly before spreading the word. Finally, she decided, "I believe God led me to do this, and he will protect me," she said.
So far, she has seen plenty of use of the free resources, and no abuse. Potential "customers" often contact her through Facebook before coming. Once she delivered diapers to a family, who gave back a bag of canned goods. Once a large donation of canned fruit came from someone who had a food allergy and couldn't use it. Anonymous donations show up on the porch. Most activity is marked only by tracks in the snow.
Hughes, a single mother of three, said the pantry is special to her because "I've needed help before, and people helped me. I'm thankful for my family and friends who gave to me. I'm glad this is something I can do for others."
Hughes would like to expand to offer more basic need items and clothes, but right now, there's no room and not enough resources. "Maybe, eventually, if God provides," she said.
