Volunteers stock food pantry, help feed hungry

Volunteers stock food pantry in Oberlin

The Lorain County Volunteer Connection, the United of Greater Lorain County and the Neighborhood Alliance teamed up Sept. 11 to stock food for some of the most vulnerable members of the community.

The groups gathered at the Neighborhood Alliance Senior Enrichment Services of Oberlin, 90 E. College St., and brought boxes of food into the building, sorting it and then placing it into a pantry in the rear of the facility.

Charlotte Lewis, program manager for Handson Northeast Ohio, said the project is part of the United Way’s Week of Caring, which runs until Sept. 16 and also will include projects at Common Ground, working the farmer’s market at El Centro in Lorain, a park clean up at Polyone and a return to the Neighborhood Alliance for a spaghetti dinner and bingo for the seniors.

For now, the pantry will have a drive-up set-up, Lewis said.

“Basically, the end goal is to have this pantry accessible to any seniors who are food insecure,” she said. “You drive up, we pack you a bag of groceries. If they are handicapped and they can’t get out of their car, that’s a great way for us to give them the food and have that need met.”

Lewis said the Neighborhood Alliance is a member of the United Way’s community collaborative.

“Neighborhood Alliance does a lot of things in the community,” she said. “They do senior enrichment, they help families.

“During the United Way week of caring, we try to engage with all of our different collaboratives in different ways to try to bring people in the community into the work that we do.”

Lillian Lambert, director of the facility, said the project “means wonders” for the organization.

“This allows us to put a food pantry hub in an area where resources are scarce,” Lambert said. “We’re kind of in a transportation hole out here in Oberlin. So, a lot of our seniors have challenges getting out and getting the resources and the nutrition they need.

“So, this gives them one more place where seniors in Lorain County can actually come and get their nutritional needs met.”

The pantry — for seniors 60 years old and older — is open from 9 a.m. to noon on Thursdays, Lambert said.

“They just come on in, bring an ID and we’ll get them set up,” she said.

“You drive up, we pack you a bag of groceries. If they are handicapped and they can’t get out of their car, that’s a great way for us to give them the food and have that need met.”

— Charlotte Lewis, program manager for Handson Northeast Ohio