Meeting needs: Cardington food pantry serves 300 families per month

Andrew Carter, Marion Star
·3 min read
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The board of directors and supporters of the Cardington Community Food Pantry held an open house for the relief agency on Tuesday, May 23, 2023, at its location at 128 Flint St. in Cardington. After being housed at Cardington First United Methodist Church since its founding in 2010, the pantry moved to Flint Street in December 2022. It serves about 300 families a month, according to board members.

Founded in 2010 after two local pastors were made aware of food deficiencies being experienced by many families in Morrow County, the Cardington Community Food Pantry has grown over the years to the point where it now serves nearly 300 families a month.

And the need continues to increase, according to John Lawyer, president of the pantry's board of directors. The board is comprised of members from the pantry's eight supporting churches: Cardington Church of the Nazarene, Cardington First United Methodist Church, Center United Methodist Church, Fairview United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church of Mount Gilead, Gilead Friends Church in Mount Gilead, St. John Lutheran Church (Windfall), and Vineyard Church of Morrow County in Fulton.

"We have approximately 45 volunteers that help out," Lawyer said. "Some once a month. Some come every couple of weeks. We have 15 or 20 that's here weekly. Then we have 10 or 12 that's here for everything we do. But we have a great group of volunteers who turn out to help people. And we get really good support from our local churches. We've been blessed."

Pantry board member and volunteer Angie Bush said the number of families the pantry serves has increased significantly this year. Over the first five months of 2023, a total of 1,453 families have been served. That's an average of 291 families per month. In April and May, the pantry served 662 families, with 322 families served in April and 340 served in May.

"We saw a big jump this year," Bush said. "Some of the covid EBT benefits dropped off May 2 and you can see the result in the numbers for April and May as people prepared for it."

John Lawyer and Angie Bush are volunteers and supporters of the Cardington Community Food Pantry. Lawyer serves as president of the board of directors.
John Lawyer and Angie Bush are volunteers and supporters of the Cardington Community Food Pantry. Lawyer serves as president of the board of directors.

After being housed at the First United Methodist Church on South Marion Street in Cardington since its inception, the pantry moved into a new location at 128 Flint St. in Cardington in December 2022. The pantry board of directors hosted an open house on Tuesday of this week to celebrate improvements made to the building since the pantry relocated there. Among the upgrades are the addition of new siding to the exterior of the building and the installation of a new HVAC system.

The Cardington Community Food Pantry is open from 9 a.m. to noon each Wednesday to serve residents of Morrow County as well as residents of the Cardington-Lincoln Local School District who live in Marion County.

The food pantry hosts a produce market from 2 to 4 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month. The produce market is open to any resident of Central Ohio. Following is the 2023 schedule for the produce markets: June 13, July 11, Aug. 8, Sept. 12, Oct. 10, Nov. 14, and Dec. 12.

Bush said the service provided by the pantry is especially important since two other food pantries that served Morrow County recently closed.

"One of them closed about six weeks ago and the other one closed not long ago," Bush said. "So, that's taken a toll given all the economic challenges that people are facing these days."

For information about the Cardington Community Food Pantry, go to its website www.cardingtonfoodpantry.org or check out its Facebook page for updates. To schedule an appointment, call 1-419-408-4201, or email cardingtonfp@yahoo.com.

All food distributed by the Cardington Community Food Pantry is supplied by the Mid-Ohio Food Collective based in Grove City. For information about that agency, go to its website mofc.org.

Email: ecarter@gannett.com | Twitter: @AndrewACCarter

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Meeting needs: Cardington food pantry serves 300 families per month