Coronavirus: Greene County food pantry to distribute food today

Greene County’s countywide food pantry is adjusting to bigger crowds and other changes due to COVID-19’s effects on the community, while moving to a new location.

Some people who had been volunteering or donating are lately among those in line for drive through events, such as one today at the old location at 541 Ledbetter Street, according to Gail Matson, president of the Xenia FISH Food Pantry.

“A lot of these people are first-time users,” Matson said.

Soon the pantry expects to be operating at their new location in a former parks maintenance building off U.S. 42.

“We’re just right on the edge of moving down here,” Matson said this week from the new location at 774 Cincinnati Ave., (U.S. 42 in Xenia). “It’s about two blocks from where we were.”

Matson and other volunteers have been splitting their time between the two locations in anticipation of the move.

On Tuesday, the volunteer staff was packing for a drive-thru event from 5 to 7 p.m. today, at 541 Ledbetter.

“We’re going to have about 200 boxes packed. I’m hoping that is very sufficient,” Matson said.

Demand has been up about 50 percent.

Local lay-offs helped make up for a reduction in older volunteers forced to stay home to avoid exposure to the novel coronavirus, Matson added.

Typically 70-100 families line up for drive-thru events, held for food distribution in response to social-distancing restrictions set up by the state.

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A week ago, 151 families were served, 105 on Saturday.

The pantry is moving to make room for the Greene County Board of Elections.

A fund-raising campaign is about $38,000 short of the $180,000 goal set to make the move.

Matson said plans are to take temporary occupancy at the new location, while raising the final dollars needed.

Last week, a woman named called the newspaper looking for a pantry in Greene County like those in Montgomery County.

In addition to the countywide pantry, there are two mobile food pantries and a network of smaller emergency food providers, including community-based FISH pantries in Fairborn and Yellow Springs, in Greene County.

FISH, which stands for, “‘Friend, I Shall Help’ or ‘Friendship In Service to Humanity’,” is an acronym used by food pantries, many of them church-based, around the country.

The Xenia-based pantry began as a service of a local Episcopal church after the 1974 tornado. In 1993, it moved into the county building, and became a full-choice pantry in 2018.

“There are still people that are not aware we exist,” Matson said.

Questions about food or other emergency needs can be answered with a call to the United Way 211 service.

MORE: Complete Coronavirus Coverage

Greene County Food Assistance

Xenia Area FISH Food Pantry

937-219-3628

Other FISH Food Pantries:

202 S. Winter St., Yellow Springs

937-767-7560

1149 N. Broad St. Fairborn

937-879-1313

Bellbrook/ Sugarcreek Family Resource Center