Meeting People Where They Are – The Roots of the Pantry Program (Part One by Erin Dalton)

One of the first new projects I had when I took on the outreach organizer position at the end of 2022 was a food pantry. We were partnering with a local elementary school and taking referrals from the administration and teachers there. I set up a pick-up schedule, packed bags, got my sign-in sheet together, anticipated numbers, and waited… and waited some more. The plan was to get this off the ground, then apply to partner with the food bank to grow the program and feed more clients. The plan fell flat. I gave it three months to be patient; patience is not my strongest trait, but I know it takes a minute for a program to grow and catch on. I reached out to teachers, administrators, the parent liaisons, and the people we’d originally met with, but in those three months, we only had a couple of people show up.

At SPECO, we are pretty great at thinking on our feet and changing course when something isn’t working. We had the food, and we didn’t have anyone picking it up, so I decided to go back to what we know is one of the most important things you can do when working with vulnerable populations: it was time to meet people where they were. We do this all the time when working with the unsheltered, but this food was purchased with people who had working kitchens in mind. I reached out to the director at Harmony House (the local day shelter and organization that carries the brunt of the weight of housing people in our area) and asked if people who had recently been housed would want a weekly food bag. We started giving ten bags a week to a Harmony House caseworker to distribute to clients who continued to need services and resources while staying in contact with the elementary school and taking phone referrals (text preferred) for anyone who needed an emergency food bag.

The bags for Harmony House kept us busy enough while slowly building more clients on the reference system. My number got put on a couple of resource lists, and we began to partner with the United Way of the River Cities and their 211 program to let more people know. I spoke with the food bank about becoming a partner with them, but we started to get more texts. Texts asking, “What are your requirements?”, saying, “I don’t qualify for food stamps but have had a hard month”, or, “I can’t make it to other food pantries because of transportation issues or restricted hours.”

We also started to get donations and questions from community members on how they could help. This felt like something we could sustain in-house and could keep open to anyone. We scrapped the idea of partnering with another food resource agency and some of the restrictions that come with that. While we understand requirements and constraints that come with larger agencies and funders, we also saw that there was a need for a no-barrier resource, and we were in a position to fill that need. We decided to keep this open for anyone who said they needed food. We know that all too often, people in need are judged for being in their situations, and distrust of the most vulnerable runs rampant. Not only were we in the position to offer food, we were able to give someone our trust. I was proud every time I was able to say, “Here is something to eat; you don’t have to explain anything to me.”

This was just the beginning. What started as a few food bags quickly grew into something much larger. In Part Two, I’ll share how the pantry program expanded into Pantry Plus and Pantry Kitchen, reshaping how SPECO supports our community.