Our food pantry is off to a great start with the new year, but we always need your contributions! Winter weather brings even more need for our neighbors dealing with food insecurity, and we hope to keep the pantry filled with a variety of basics in support of our local community.

Ongoing needs include:

• Proteins—particularly canned meats like tuna and chicken. Beans are also great, but the tuna and chicken seem to be in high demand!
• Peanut butter—smaller jars and/or individual-sized servings are great!
• Shelf-stable milk
• Canned fruits and vegetables—we are running low on canned veggies, and while we have a decent supply of fruit cups, we don’t have a lot of canned fruits, like sliced peaches or pears, fruit cocktail, etc.
• Hygiene items (soaps, shampoos, etc.—sample sizes are great for this).
• First-aid items (Band-Aids, antibacterial wipes, etc.—things that could be assembled into small first-aid kits.

If you can find canned items with pull-tabs, that’s ideal. We are also distributing military- grade can openers (these are kinda cool—look them up!) so that folks can grab a can opener to go with the canned goods. (Thanks, Pat Nolan, for acquiring these!) All donations are split between the pantry at church and the pantry maintained in Champaign by AJ Herzog. AJ says her pantry empties nearly as soon as it’s filled, so let’s keep those donations coming!

We do have a wishlist online at Amazon, (Linked HERE) so if you like you can use this as a reference or purchase directly through Amazon. Other great places to shop include Aldi and Costco. Please go with whatever fits your needs, schedule, or budget! We will also be assembling some physical lists to have available for reference so you don’t have to check online for current pantry needs.

We can also use volunteers! Right now, we have one person assigned to each day of the week (except Sunday) to fill the pantry. It would be great if we could have multiple volunteers so we could refresh the pantry contents more than once a day. I personally would love to see it full as often as possible, beckoning hungry travelers as they debark from the bus across the street. (Sorry, maybe I got a little carried away there…)

For more information about volunteering or donating, please contact Pat Nolan or Katriena Knights.