The new pantry will be in a Bainbridge Street building, across the street from Eastway’s main offices at 600 Wayne Ave. in Dayton.
The agency is partnering with the Dayton Foodbank to open the site’s doors, relying also on a $20,000 grant from the Brain Health Foundation.
“We’re going to set it up almost as a grocery store,” Saum-Johnson said.
For more than six decades, Eastway has served people with mental illnesses. It’s hard to work on treatment for such illnesses if clients don’t have a place to sleep at night or if they’re hungry, Saum-Johnson said.
“We’re just going to start with the needs and go from there,” she said. “We’re going to see where it takes us.”
In 2017, Eastway expanded its service footprint to include Columbus and Washington Court House.
For more information about the pantry, people can call Eastway’s intake number at (937) 496-2000.
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