Emanuel Food Pantry

Emanuel Food Pantry is a local organization whose mission is providing healthy food to those in need. Before the pandemic, we were a group of church members preparing dinners every Wednesday evening for about 60 families from the community, inviting them to come together in fellowship around the table. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March of 2020, we had to stop our weekly dinners, but realized that the need for food would be greater than ever. We decided to move the food pantry out to our parking lot.

Due to the economic hardships that far too many people experienced, the number of families coming to us for food grew steadily and quickly. We called on support from other churches and friends, and together, we quickly found ourselves serving over 600 families every week. In order to sustain this growth and ensure the sustainability of the pantry, we formed a separate 501(c)(3) entity to operate the food pantry.

For each family, we provide a large bag with shelf-stable items, such as rice, beans, canned vegetables, pasta, canned protein, and cereal. In addition, we fill boxes with a wide variety of fresh produce. Whenever possible, we also give out meat. Our goal is to provide as much nutritious food as possible to alleviate the financial stress that so many people continue to experience. We understand that good food is essential to good health.

Everyone is welcome at our food pantry. Volunteers come from all over our community on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays to prepare the bags and boxes of food. Every Wednesday afternoon, between 2 and 4, our parking lot is filled with activity as cars drive in, pop their trunks, and volunteers load the food. It is an amazing sight, made possible by many dedicated, hard-working, and generous individuals. We remain grateful to be able to serve the community in this practical and very important way. This is love in action.