Lamoni Food Pantry

The Lamoni Food Pantry was started by the local Ministerial Alliance as they saw a need to provide food support for families in the Lamoni area. Non-perishable food items were collected from the churches and community. The churches provided funds for a $10 Hy-Vee food coupon that was given out to provide help with perishable items the family might need in addition to the non-perishable items they received from the Pantry. The Pantry was housed in one of the local churches. The local Community of Christ Church, Baptist and Methodist churches have all at one time or another had the responsibility for the Pantry. In the summer of 2008, the Food Pantry moved from the Baptist Church to the Lamoni United Methodist Church. The Pantry was housed in the church kitchen until October of 2008 when the church Board allocated a room in the basement of the church so the Pantry could expand to allow families to shop for their food instead of being given pre-packaged sacks of food. With grant monies from the United Methodist Church the Pantry was able to buy paint, shelving, 2 freezers and a refrigerator. The new freezers and refrigerator facilitated the ability to give out meats and occasionally items such as milk, cheese, eggs and orange juice. Since the move, the Pantry leadership has under gone a change from an executive director (who ran the day-to-day operation and reported back to the local Ministerial Alliance) to a 12 member Board which now has oversight for running the Pantry. The Pantry applied for and received a 501(c)3 non-profit status from the federal government in 2010. At the time of the move to the church basement we were serving 6 families a month. Since then the number of families using the Pantry has grown significantly. In 2012 we had 734 visits from area families, averaging 61 family visits per month. In January of 2013, 83 families visited the Pantry representing 223 individuals.