Pastor Mitch was asked to serve at Ellet Community Church 10 years ago. When he first came to the Ellet neighborhood, he was overwhelmed by the state of hunger in the community.
“I saw the need in the community right away. I saw that people were walking to the pantry, taking the bus, doing whatever it took to get food. You could see the need for food; people were hungry,” said Pastor Mitch.
A few years ago, Ellet Community Church merged with another food program that had been serving the community since the early 1980s. Pastor Mitch and others at the church were worried that joining food pantries would be too much of an undertaking. But with much thought, prayer, and an understanding that if they didn’t merge there would be dozens of local families without a source of food, they joined forces.
Over the past two years, the church has expanded its reach through different food programs to feed more neighbors. Each week, they serve 100 families with health complications and transportation barriers through their home delivery program. The church also delivers food to seniors living at or below the poverty line through the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. Including those served through their food pantry, Ellet Community Church provides food for nearly 300 families every week.
Because of the increased neighbors served through their program, the church recently switched from picking up food from the Foodbank once per week to twice per week. As they’ve continued to find new ways to feed their neighbors, they’ve outgrown their current food storage area in the church’s fellowship hall and are building a new storage facility.
Their work is made possible by their family of volunteers, many of whom have experienced food insecurity themselves.
“The heart for this work comes from people who are in the church, who at one time in their lives were down and out, and they had to rely upon the food pantries to survive. They know that people will go hungry if we do not have this food pantry."
Thanks to community support and its partnership with the Foodbank, Ellet Community Church continues to feed its neighbors in need.
"Without the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank, I just don’t think this work would be possible.”