Store managers invited to tour Fellowship Cup’s food pantry

Jody Adler said that if it weren't for the Fellowship Cup's food pantry, her family of seven would be starving right now.

'People don't understand what these families here are going through,” Adler said while picking up groceries at the Fellowship Cup on Thursday, May 23.

The Fellowship Cup is able to give food to people in need any day of the week, but it's during food pantry days on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. that clients can pick and choose what they need, said Ken Brown, director of the Fellowship Cup. They serve between 130 and 140 Henry County households a week.

Store managers from Walmart, Hy-Vee and Aldi - all stores who donate to the Fellowship Cup - were invited to tour the food pantry on Thursday, May 23.

Chad Sloat, Walmart store manager in Mt. Pleasant, said that the Fellowship Cup's food pantry is a 'slick deal.”

'It makes your heart warm to see,” Sloat said. 'It's part of our corporate beliefs to fight hunger by partnering with Feed America. It's amazing to come in here and see how it all works.”

Sloat, who became Mt. Pleasant's store director five years ago, said the program was running long before he took the job. Walmart is always looking for any way they can help their communities, he said.

'It's about community support,” Sloat said. 'All of these folks are part of our community.”

Travis Richards, produce assistant manager at Walmart, said seeing the food pantry operate out of the Fellowship Cup helped him see what clients need and what they don't.

'It will be easier to decide what to donate and what not to donate. We can take this lesson back to all our associates,” Richards said.

Richards said that Walmart does their best to catch produce, meat and anything else with a sell-by date before it goes bad to donate.

Anything that isn't damaged that is shipped in a damaged box can also be donated to the food pantry, Richards said.

Richards, who is from Mt. Pleasant, said that the food pantry is all the more special because it's neighbor helping neighbor.

'It's nice to see the impact,” he said.

The food pantry went from distributing 60,000 pounds of food in 2017 to 84,000 pounds of food the following year. The substantial increase in food donated was in large part because Aldi came on board with Feed America, Brown said.

'We would not be able to do this without faithful volunteers who look at this as a job,” Brown said.

Marsha Birdsell began volunteering with the Fellowship Cup's food pantry in March. She asked clients how many were in their household and assisted them with choosing the produce they needed.

'I was bored. The winter was so nasty, and I thought, ‘I can do this,'” she said. 'I love being able to help people. It's giving back to the community.”

Birdsell said that she is slowly getting to know the clients and become friends with the other volunteers.

'One man comes in and gives us all hugs,” Birdsell said with a laugh.

Anna Brown said that the Fellowship Cup's food pantry supplements food she gets from food stamps.

'I've made friends with other people and volunteers. It keeps me involved in the community,” Brown said. 'It's been a big boost food-wise. I get choices, and I don't have to take stuff I don't need.”

Brown gives back to her community by helping collect canned food with her church, which then is donated to church members and back to the Fellowship Cup.

Terance Standley's parents have been clients of the Fellowship Cup for a decade. He said that it means a lot to them with his father on Social Security and his mother trying to get on disability.

'They can't work and there's only so much I can do,” Stadley said. 'I don't know what we'd do without the Fellowship Cup or the food pantry. It helps a lot of people here.”