The individual in the above photo is Sandi Bassett, volunteer at Lodi Food 4 All.
For the past 11 years, the Lodi Food Pantry has offered nutritious food for the town’s residents. In recent months, these services have become even more crucial: “Our numbers increased incredibly when SNAP and other federal programs were discontinued,” says Karel Titus, one of the pantry’s organizers. However, this doesn’t discourage community leaders like Titus – in fact, she sees this as an opportunity to improve the pantry’s services.
“People have expenses. One of them is food, but in some cases, people have to make decisions with their money – ‘do I spend money on food, rent, medicine, or health insurance?’ … the majority of families can’t cover everything; so, they have to make decisions.” The Lodi Food Pantry addresses these tough decisions and ensures families do not have to sacrifice weekly meals.
Titus’s team does so, in part, through support from Sustainable Finger Lakes’ Neighborhood Mini-Grant (NMG) program. Recently, Titus noticed that the food pantry’s patrons needed food carts: “Usually, about two bags of groceries… weigh about 30-40 pounds. We figured, unless they have another person with them that can help with bags, they can’t carry their food around the pantry.”
Upon identifying this need, the Lodi Food Pantry applied to the NMG program, using their grant to purchase carts for their patrons. Now, customers can easily navigate the pantry without lugging around heavy grocery bags. The support provided by the program has been invaluable to community leaders like Titus, who sees the Lodi Food Pantry growing in the coming years:
“We’ve had several donors, residents, and other folks who see the need and have given us cash donations. So, we have really been able to stay up with the demand, fortunately. We just keep going.”
To learn more about how to turn your community project into a reality, please contact Sasha Paris (sasha@sustainablefingerlakes.org) or visit our website.
