Food pantry takes over old Beacon-News office

WINFIELD — With more than 40 years of experience serving the Winfield community, The MOPS (Methodist, Open Bible, Presbyterian, and Spring Churches) - The Winfield Food Pantry will move out of the Methodist Church’s basement into the former office of the Winfield Beacon.

Thanks to volunteers currently renovate the building, the former office will receive a new purpose.

Additionally, the MOPS—The Winfield Food Pantry welcomes a new group into their partnership to provide for the needs of area residents.

Women of the Word (WOW), a women’s Bible Study group in Winfield, recently signed on to assist MOPS in continuing their service.

Along with the location change and additional partner, they will begin doing business under the name “Beacon of Light.”

Due to the economic impact of COVID-19, the cost of living, including groceries, has skyrocketed; and client numbers have increased at the pantry. This past year, the pantry invited those utilizing the backpack program to also access the pantry if their families needed assistance with groceries.

The former location, in the Methodist Church basement experienced struggles with space following this increase.

At one point, the food pantry required the addition of a doorway between two rooms for more storage.

The new storage space received additional shelving and new freezers to store more supplies for the larger demand.

As the need grew, so did the struggle for enough space in the current location. Currently, one food pantry board member houses three additional freezers in their garage.

Food from that location requires volunteers move that supply to the church basement.

The organization hopes that with additional room, all shelving and freezers will be on site.

Each month, the Winfield Pantry orders food from the Fellowship Cup in Mt. Pleasant. They also receive donations of food items from each of the organizations involved in keeping the pantry running.

The pantry utilizes monetary donations, when necessary, for shopping trips to restock the shelves. Recently, Spring Run’s youth organization, led by Thom and Mary Miller, took over this task.

This is a learning experience for the young people as they see what food costs and how much it takes to feed a family. This group also utilizes a quarterly monetary gift from their church for these shopping trips.

With the increase in patrons now using the pantry, the organization could no longer ignore the need for more space.

Enter, the Winfield Beacon Building.

For the last 25 years Rich and Cathy Lauderdale owned the building originally built in 1881.

Now, however, Spring Run Church bought the building as a new home for the food pantry.

With the awards from grants, four men began renovations earlier this year.

After they spent almost every day in the building tearing down and putting a new ‘coat’ on the walls, and hauling construction material away from the building, they finally started renovating.

While the grant monies helped with the work thus far, the costs exceed current funds, and the organization works on writing more grants to cover the costs.

In addition to the grants, an upcoming fundraiser will help finance this project.

The fundraiser, set for Saturday, April 15 at the Winfield Veterans Building, will consist of a free-will offering dinner, and a cheesecake silent auction.

The Board of Directors for Beacon of Light food pantry will prepare hot chicken sandwiches, maidrites, salad, and a dessert for the meal.

Dinner service will begin at 5 p.m. and continue until everyone who comes through the door has eaten, or the food runs out, whichever comes first.

Jan Shelman will provide the cheesecakes for the silent auction.

If you have never tasted one of her cheesecakes, this is your chance. A reputation of deliciousness precedes them.

To make a monetary contribution, either contact a board member or mail donations to MOPS, PO Box 128, Winfield, IA 52659.

A previous version of this story stated the PO Box as 126.