The Food Pantry is an outreach ministry of Grace Moravian Church. The mission is to spread the love and compassion of our Chief Elder, Jesus Christ, in our community. Our service attempts to improve the ability of families to become food secure by collecting, purchasing and packaging food for distribution. Grace’s Food Pantry is a small investment in the health and spiritual well-being of our community, in comparison to the cost of ignoring the problem of hunger, and the influence it has on a number of health, crime and spiritual issues. Our vision is that everyone should have ready access to a nutritious food supply through non-traditional channels.

Grace Moravian Food Pantry is funded by the donations from members of the congregation, private donors, a grant from the Eastern District Board and fundraising activities.

The Pantry is open to the public once per month, the third Saturday, for a total of 2 hours. Families receive food and non-food items. There are no restrictions on families, such as the need of citizenship or permanent residency status, to determine who can receive assistance.

The Pantry was created in November 2010 as a response to our community’s needs. and has experienced dramatic growth in 2011. We served 83 recipients in the first quarter and in the second quarter, 239 recipients. Our recipients is a mixture of young single mothers, fathers, elderly men and women and grandmothers who are caretakers for their grandchildren. We have also expanded to the shut-ins bimonthly. The growth in family members’ visits and food distribution has been handled through the hard work of a Management Committee and dedicated hard working volunteers.

The Pantry is working to serve all of the families who come to the Pantry with expressed needs for food while obtaining enough resources to be able to serve everyone. We plan to build on established strengths to enlarge our capacity to serve through direct service and collaboration with those who share our mission.