Providing food for those in need is the main goal of the PCMA Food Pantry of Pickerington, but there’s much more to its operation than just getting the food from Point A to Point B.
Doing everything possible to make sure its offerings are healthful is one important consideration. Finding a way to use every donation to its full potential is another.
The pantry runs on donations. Food donations come primarily from Kroger and the Pickerington Local School District cafeterias, though some are individual donations; residents will donate their own produce to benefit the pantry’s operations.
That means the pantry often encounters big supplies of unusual ingredients, forcing volunteers to find a way to best utilize them.
“We can’t really have any type of recipe program; what we get is so different from week to week, there’s no way you know what you’ll be getting,” says pantry Director of Development Conor Neville. “People come in with their own ideas and we just have to work with it.”
One recent donation, for instance, left the pantry with a huge supply of kale – very healthful, but unfamiliar to a lot of clients and not at all appetizing by itself.
“People think it’s gross,” Neville says with a laugh. “You have to come up with a simple
recipe using things at the pantry to get rid of it all.”
Neville and his colleagues solved the problem after finding a recipe for kale chips, which were a little easier to give away, he says. Parsnips made up another unusual donation, and the pantry has experienced some difficulty reducing its stock of other items, such as gizzards.
“One time, we had a bunch of turkey sausage, so we found a recipe for meatloaf that used turkey, which was pretty popular,” says Neville. “Sometimes, you just need to get a little creative.”
Appetizing offerings comprise an important goal for the pantry and its employees and volunteers. There’s a strong effort to combine taste and health.
“We’ve gotten healthier and made a lot of strides, offering meat that isn’t canned and a lot more produce,” Neville says. “If we can make it healthy and taste good, that’s a priority, because it’s not as hard to give away unhealthy food.”
To that end, the pantry places no limits on how much fresh produce families can take and tries to steer clients away from canned foods, he says.
Monetary donations also help the food pantry, allowing it to buy food from the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, another major source of items.
“We get a lot of our food from Mid-Ohio Foodbank,” Neville says. “$1.80 doesn’t get you much at a grocery store, but it gets us a lot more.”
Pickerington school district residents in need are eligible to use the food pantry’s services. Each has the opportunity to schedule a visit once a month to pick up food for themselves and their families.
“For each person, they get 24 meals worth of food every time they come in – and it only costs us $1.80 on average, so about 18 cents a day,” Neville says. “The average family is fed for eight days for just $5.70.”
Summer is a time of year when the food pantry is especially in need of donations, Neville says, as the school district does not have leftover food to donate.
“A lot of donations come from food drives or schools, but in the summer, people don’t tend to think about us as much,” says Neville.
Those interested in helping out can learn more by calling the food pantry at 614-834-0079, emailing it at pcmafoodpantry@gmail.com or visiting its website at www.pcmafoodpantry.com.
“We’re always accepting donations,” says Neville. “And we’re always accepting money over food, because we can use the money more efficiently. Volunteers are always welcome, too.”
Lauren Andrews is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
