Supporters, volunteers, local government officials, business owners and friends and family, joined in at the ribbon cutting and Open House of the new location of Caring & Sharing Food Pantry on Thursday May 2, 2024. The new location is at 318 N Walnut St., Paulding. C&S Board President Dan Bulau greeted guests and thanked all involved in making this new building possible. It took approximately $600,000 to complete this project. The new Pantry opened to clients on April 20th. 244 households have already benefited from the new pantry location. Bulau thanked Rev. Singh and the St. Paul Lutheran Church for first bringing a new location for the Pantry to the board for consideration. He thanked the other contributors including the multitude of volunteer hours organizing and cataloging the inventory and manning the Pantry, as well as Hartzog Construction during the building of the location. Pastor Jeremy Thompson lead a prayer blessing over the Pantry right before the Ribbon Cutting ceremony.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors – this sums up the mission of the Caring & Sharing Food Pantry: Engage the local giving community and volunteers to help serve our neighbors and work against food insecurity in Paulding County.
It takes tons of food donations to deliver on the mission of Caring & Sharing Food Pantry… literally tons… 46.1 tons (in 2023) to be exact. For reference, that amount is equivalent to NINE John Deere tractors (JD tractor 404 weights 10,490lb.)! Donations have been made by individuals, food drives, West Ohio Food Bank, and the Feeding America program through the Van Wert Walmart. Also, C&S purchases food for the pantry directly with the monetary donations that are given by the community donors. Volunteerism is the driving force behind the workings of Caring & Sharing. It takes approximately 90 volunteers a month to keep the food pantry functioning.
People who do not have access to the food they need to live, is the definition of “food insecurity”. In Paulding County, 11% fall under this category and currently C&S is only servicing half that percentage. There are only two requirements to receive help from C&S: you must live in Paulding County and you have to have a household income at or below 200% of Federal Poverty level. In 2023, Caring & Sharing served clients all over the county: 45 in Antwerp, 22 in Cecil, 217 in Paulding, 18 in Payne, 8 in Latty, 13 in Haviland, 9 in Scott, 39 in Oakwood, 10 in Melrose, 15 in Grover Hill, and 27 from other areas of Paulding County.
Next on C&S board’s agenda is fundraising for the future building goals of a walk-in freezer, walk-in cooler and a paved parking lot. This new building is a fabulous asset for the village of Paulding and Paulding County Ohio.
If you are interested to learn more about Caring & Sharing, their hours of operation are Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. through 12:00 p.m. and Saturdays 9:00 a.m. through 12:00 p.m.
Other pantries in the county:
Grover Hill Food Pantry, Auglaize Chapel Church of God, Cecil Community Church, and Christian Food Pantry of Antwerp.
