Generous donors and volunteers at The Pantry JC have for years empowered Mid-Missourians to prepare their own foods and overcome food insecurity.
But as the nation comes out of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more families are seeking out the nonprofit, hoping it can help them feed their children.
Mellisa Young and members of her family drove to The Pantry JC Saturday morning to pick up meals for themselves and for seven neighbors who live in an eastside apartment complex.
The products Young picks up help her get her family through the month.
The nonprofit, located in Jefferson City on the lower level at 2123 Missouri Blvd., distributes food on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month.
About nine years ago, Table of Grace Church wished to create a food pantry, but realized food donated to pantries often can seem exotic to people who received it and it would be underused.
The church developed the idea of cooking and eating healthy and inexpensive foods with the food pantry. The pantry has specified lists of items it accepts as donations, which are listed on its website, thepantryjc.org. Volunteers maintain on the website a wish list of items it may be running low on.
How the pantry works is it provides people with about three days' worth of meals. More importantly, it teaches people how to prepare inexpensive healthy meals and to stretch dollars.
Breakfast options include grits, homemade biscuits, oatmeal and Cream of Wheat. The pantry has a menu of basic dinner meals for which people can "shop" from a selection of food products. The dinner meals consist of chicken pot pie, chicken chili, chicken and rice with vegetables, chicken pasta with vegetables and red beans and rice. Most ingredients usually include bone-in chicken, but there was a period last year when red meat was cheaper than chicken, and the pantry substituted.
Participants, who are not required to provide income or residency information, are asked to select three dinner meals and seasoning packets for them -- choosing from curry, Mexican, garlic/Italian and lemon pepper.
Young said her family has been using The Pantry JC for three months since she found it on Facebook.
"I love the recipes because they are so easy," Young said.
She said she also relies on other food pantries to feed her family.
The nonprofit is dedicated to helping families prepare hot, hearty, healthy, ready-to-cook meals, according to volunteer coordinator Sherrie Downs.
But inflation is having an effect on the nonprofit. More people arrive at the door each distribution day, seeking help feeding families, she said. Enough members of the area's Hispanic community have found The Pantry JC that it had all its menus translated to Spanish for their convenience.
"It's been more challenging as needs have increased," Downs said.
And the number of people donating food has shrunk lately, she said.
"They've dropped off and dropped off," Downs said. "We've lost -- I don't know how many. Many of our donors are struggling."
She said she worries they, too, are having trouble paying for food.
People wishing to donate should go to the nonprofit's website, thepantryjc.org and find its "Wish List." You'll see that the organization needs 16 ounce packages of dry penne or rotini pasta (no long noodles), white rice (not instant), old-fashioned oats, quick grits (not instant), Cream of Wheat, dry red beans, dry white beans and snack-size or sandwich-size Ziploc bags.
Monetary donations (which also may be made on the website) are greatly appreciated because the nonprofit uses them to buy frozen chicken and vegetables directly from local grocery stores.
"We don't hand out processed foods," Downs said. "It's a three-day tide-over when there's more month than money."
The pantry isn't intended to be a long-term solution for hunger, she added. However, organizers understand that clients struggle for long periods.
Roger Green, an independent contractor for a local internet provider, said things began to slow down at work late last year.
He said that when his work started declining, his wife began looking for ways to supplement their food budget. She found The Pantry JC on its Facebook page.
Green said he hopes to be working full time again in March.
CORRECTION: This article was edited at 10:33 a.m. Jan. 19, 2023, to remove an incorrect reference to Community Christian Church.
Joe Gamm/News Tribune photo: Roger Green and Loki, a huskie, wait for their order from The Pantry JC to be filled. Green said the nonprofit helps him feed his family.
Joe Gamm/News Tribune photo: Roger Green and Loki, a huskie, wait for their order from The Pantry JC to be filled. Green said the nonprofit helps him feed his family.
Joe Gamm/News Tribune photo: Sara Ramelb fills an order for a The Pantry JC client. Volunteers spend a day earlier in the week separating foods into small packages that can be distributed.