Weekly Update

We have been keeping busy the past few weeks! Volunteers working outdoors are enjoying cooler temperatures, but we could do without the rain! We are grateful for the donations of fresh produce from local gardeners as the season winds down. Click the arrows above to browse through the photos.

Please read this update from volunteer leaders Janice Rook and Melody Smiley.

In August, the Pop Up Pantry continued our successful efforts to serve clients weekly in their local communities.  Working with National Church Residences, an organization that manages several supported housing complexes throughout Columbus, food was distributed to clients/families at the following agency sites:

August 5:  Commons at Livingston-27 clients
August 12:  Southpoint Apartments-32 clients/families
August 19:  Commons at Grant-24 clients
August 26:  North 22nd Street/Commons at Buckingham-40 clients

123 clients/families were served in August, an increase of 25 over those served in July.

Our team of three volunteers skillfully bagged food each Wednesday during the month. We were able to purchase 3 light-weight, portable dollies to use not only in the bagging process but also in loading the bags into the van and unloading these at the site. Additionally, we were able to purchase 2 folding tables for bagging food.  This equipment improved our efficiency as well as provided for increased safety in the process (i.e., injury prevention).

We’re thankful this month for the assistance of our Share and Learn Garden and the ability to add fresh produce to the food provided for our Pop Up Pantry clients.

During August, we welcomed the addition of volunteer drivers who assist us by driving the van to our agency sites.  One driver accompanied our volunteers each week, meeting us at the pantry after the bagging process was completed, assisting in loading the bags of food, and transporting and delivering it to our designated site.  We’re grateful for the ability to use one of our church vans for the Pop Up Pantry.

Our entire team of dedicated volunteers worked diligently to ensure the needs of our clients were met each week.  Those volunteering were Kitty Rohrer, Kathleen Hatcher, Rose Kandel, Carla Edlefson, Glen Zook, Steve Young, and Mark Tucker.   Clients and agency contacts expressed much appreciation for the efforts of our team.

We’re grateful for Heart to Heart’s support of our outreach initiative and look forward to continuing to grow the Pop Up Pantry in serving more clients and in expanding our work with other community agencies to identify new sites for the pantry.  The Pop Up Pantry is committed to furthering the mission of Heart to Heart and our church in serving others as God calls us to do and in meeting the needs of our local communities during this time of a serious pandemic and increased food insecurity.

The Pop-Up Pantry will continue to operate during the brief hiatus.

Are you interested in being a shift leader? Please let us know.
Volunteers interested in being shift leaders will need to complete the online Food Safety course. The cost to complete the course and receive certification is $15. Training is available on the ServSafe website. Follow the instructions on their site to purchase the course and take the assessment online. If you’re interested in the training, but the cost of the course is burdensome, please send an email to ACaskie@FCchurch.com. Amy will purchase the course online and send you the information to access it.

Volunteers interested in learning how to use PantryTrak from a representative at Mid-Ohio Food Collective should indicate their interest by completing the following.

As part of our agreement with Mid-Ohio Food Collective, we must maintain certain standards. One of these is Civil Rights training for all of our volunteers. All volunteers will be required to complete this online training before we can resume normal pantry activity on September 21. There are three steps to this process.

1. Take the free online training course available here.
2. Complete the quiz at the end of the slideshow.
3. Use this online form to let us at Heart to Heart know you have completed your training, so we can verify with Mid-Ohio Food Collective. Please note you are not required to login as a First Community member to complete this step.

There are very specific reasons we have scheduled this hiatus for Heart to Heart services:

1. Cleaning
2. Inventory
3. Fall/Winter Planning
4. Accreditation Review
5. Training

For the first week, we are asking our dedicated and hard-working group of volunteers to rest, reinvigorate, and remember why you love Heart to Heart. You may consider taking this time to do the following:

1. Register your Kroger card for Community Rewards which earns money for Heart to Heart when you grocery shop. More info here>>
2. Take the online Civil Rights Training.
3. Make sure to sign up to volunteer online.

The following week, we will be asking volunteers to join us for specific projects and to attend planned discussions. You can view the schedule and Sign-Up Genius online. We look forward to our conversations with you about how we can help Heart to Heart serve the community in the best way possible.

We will resume our services the week of September 21. To volunteer for those shifts, please make sure you have completed the Civil Rights training above, then use the Sign-Up Genius to let us know you are coming. If you are a minor, we must have a Waiver Form on file for you.

Please note: We must adhere to CDC guidelines for all of our volunteer shifts. In order to do that, we cannot accept volunteer walk-ins and the number of volunteers per shift will be limited. We hope this is a temporary solution to a temporary problem and we ask for grace as we work together to figure this out.

• Please continue to pray for Joe Martin, a First Community staff member.
• We hold Donna Powers in our prayers, and send condolences on the recent loss of her daughter.
• Click here to be added to First Community prayer chain.

Thank you for your constant support of Heart to Heart, a First Community mission.

We have some exciting news forthcoming. Please stay tuned to our Facebook and Instagram accounts and tag a family member or friend!

We are grateful for You. We are grateful for God.

Blessings,

Lamar

Click below to view the order from Mid-Ohio Food Collective that we received this past Monday, August 10.

Through this program, First Community Missions earns more than $6000 per year which is then given to support our own food pantry, Heart to Heart.

In the period beginning May 1 and ending July 31, 2020, this program earned $1157.61 toward Heart to Heart with 261 households participating. Thank you!

You could win one of 8 gift cards by engaging with us on social media Aug 17-24. We have 6 gift cards for Kroger, 1 for Giant Eagle, and 1 for Advance Auto Parts available for our clients to win. Check our Facebook and Instagram daily beginning Aug 17 for your chance to win!

• Please continue to pray for Joe Martin, a First Community staff member.
• Click here to be added to First Community prayer chain.

Please continue to pray for Joe Martin, a First Community staff member.

Click here to be added to First Community prayer chain.

Over two hundred pounds of fresh produce was delivered on Tuesday to Heart to Heart from the Greg Lashutka family farm.  Thanks, Greg, and everyone who donated fresh produce to the pantry.  Clients love it!

You can view past and present Volunteer of the Month posts on this page. Bryan Smith, better known as Smitty, is our volunteer of the month for August. Click here to read his statement and learn more about him. Below is a flyer from Smitty and Creative Canvas Columbus who will be doing a fundraiser for Heart to Heart. They have extended the date through the end of August! Thank you, Smitty!

• Please continue to pray for Joe Martin, a First Community staff member.
• Click here to be added to First Community prayer chain.

by Janice Rook

On Wednesday, July 15, the Pop-Up Pantry traveled to The Commons at Grant, a supportive housing complex for clients managed by National Church Residences.  Food was bagged with stock from Lincoln Road as well as produce from the pantry and delivered to 25 residents at the complex.  A few residents were outside upon our arrival and expressed appreciation for bringing the food to their residence.  Danielle, the case manager, also expressed her thanks to our team.

Thanks to the team members; Kitty Rohrer, Kathleen Hatcher, Rose Kandel, Melody Smiley and Janice Rook.

On Wednesday, July 22, the Pop-Up Pantry team delivered food to 25 clients at North 22nd Street, a 32-unit supported housing complex for clients with mental health needs managed by National Church Residences and part of the Community Housing Network.   Food was bagged with stock from Lincoln Road, bread and produce from the pantry, and produce from our church garden.  It was then delivered to the site.  Our contact, Christine, and another staff member met us upon arrival, and bags were unloaded with assistance from three of the clients.  Staff and the clients expressed much appreciation for our efforts.

Thanks to our team members today, Kitty Rohrer, Kathleen Hatcher, Rose Kandel, Melody Smiley and Janice Rook. Thanks to Melody for donating bar soap for each of the clients. Thanks to Kitty for doing the data entry and record-keeping.

Below is a picture of Kitty, Rose, and the staff, Christine and Rachel, showing their Ohio spirit.

Since there are five Wednesdays in July, we will not be running the Pop-Up Pantry next Wednesday.  Our next pantry date will be on August 5.

If you are interested in volunteering for this new opportunity, please contact Janice Rook or Melody Smiley

• Thank you for your prayers for Diane Sturges and her mother, who is doing well.
• Please continue to pray for Joe Martin, a First Community staff member.
• Click here to be added to First Community prayer chain.

by Lamar Graham

The vision of Heart to Heart is to model God’s love by:

Cultivating a loving community
Honoring individual gifts
Feeding bodies and souls
…and seeing everyone as a child of God.

Pictured here is Anthony Bright

Anthony Bright’s last visit to Heart to Heart was in 2016. Since then, he has had steady employment, putting him in a financial position to provide for his wife and twin daughters. Anthony periodically stops by Heart to Heart just to say hello.

It brings great joy to see Heart to Heart clients find employment and no longer in need of our services. At the same time, we want the community at large and especially our clients to know, we are here for your food, spiritual, mental, and emotional needs. We take great pride in providing quality of service beyond food. We believe what makes our clients experience unique is our interaction with each client that visits us.

We will continue to fulfill our mission to “cultivate a loving community, honoring individual gifts, feeding bodies and souls, and seeing everyone as a child of God” as long as God gives us the grace to continue to do so.

Thank you for you support in providing families like Anthony’s an opportunity—an opportunity to thrive.

Take a look at a few photos from 2013 to see how far we have come since then!

by Janice Rook

This week the Pop Up Pantry traveled to Southpoint Place, a supportive housing complex for families managed by National Church Residences.  Again this week, food was bagged with stock from Lincoln Road.  It was then delivered to our designated site in south Columbus.  Bags were delivered to each family at their doorstep.  25 families were served.  Several clients were at their doors when we arrived.  They expressed thanks for bringing the food to their homes.  The bagging and distribution process went smoothly without issues.

Thanks to our team members today, Kitty Rohrer, Kathleen Hatcher and Rose Kandel.  Melody and I were there again to coordinate volunteer activities.  Kitty is entering the client families into Pantry Trak.  Rose donated soap and deodorant for each family.

Thank you for helping us load the bags of food into our cars.

Attached is the spreadsheet for the agency contacts.  Also attached are pictures.

We look forward to continuing the Pop Up Pantry next Wednesday.

If you are interested in volunteering for this new opportunity, please contact Janice Rook or Melody Smiley

• Diane Sturges and her mother
• Joe Martin, First Community staff member
• Click here to be added to First Community prayer chain.

Hi friends,

Heart to Heart is still here! We are aware that unemployment benefits are scheduled to be cut at the end of July. The majority of the clientele we see at Heart to Heart is usually a mom with 2-3 children. If benefits are cut for our families, this could create a need for more assistance. Pre COVID-19, a family of four could make a yearly income of $51,499 before being eligible to visit food pantries according to Ohio Department of Job and Family Service. Since COVID-19 a family of four can make a yearly income of up to $59,225. With the factors of unemployment, COVID-19, changing income guidelines, etc. this could mean we are in for a challenge, however we are embracing it.

We started our Pre-Packaged initiative on March 17, and we plan on continuing this process until further notice. Our very first day on March 17, we served 92 households and on the very next day March 19, we served 63 households. Since then our numbers haven’t been as high. I would attribute our number going down due to families having additional funding for food via unemployment in addition to schools helping with food and extra funding.

Whatever challenges may arise, Heart to Heart is still here. Your support through this pandemic has been matchless. We appreciate your advocacy, financial support, your volunteering, and most importantly your love and prayers. We could not do what we do without your help. Keep us in mind over the next couple of weeks as we prepare to be a blessing to each client that visits us.

With God’s help all things are possible,

Lamar

by Janice Rook

We are delighted to share that the Pop Up Pantry went smoothly today.  As you saw, food was bagged quickly with stock from Lincoln Road.  It was then delivered to our designated site, Commons at Livingston, a supported housing complex for veterans managed by National Church Residences.  Several clients were outside the entrance when we arrived.  Our contact, Joyce, met us, and bags were unloaded without any difficulty.  Joyce and the clients expressed their appreciation for our efforts.

Thanks to our team members today, Kitty Rohrer, Kathleen Hatcher, and Rose Kandel.  Melody and I were there to train and coordinate volunteer activities.  Kitty donated loaves of bread and jelly for each client. Additionally, Kathleen donated bar soap and deodorant and Janice donated full-size shampoo for each client.

If you are interested in volunteering for this new opportunity, please contact Janice Rook or Melody Smiley

• Our condolences to Lynn Gutches Snowden on the passing of her husband, Hank, on June 19.
• Click here to be added to First Community prayer chain.

by Janice Rook

With food insecurity continuing to grow in Central Ohio during the recent widespread pandemic, Heart to Heart is expanding its mission by reaching out to serve clients and their families directly in their local communities while continuing to provide our current drive-through service.

Pop Up Pantry sites will be established working in partnership with local community agencies, such as supportive housing complexes, senior centers and neighborhood community centers and other community-based organizations.  Food from our pantry will be bagged and delivered to an agency’s site location for distribution to clients and their families.

The Pop Up Pantry will operate once a week with a small team of volunteers.  All Pop Up Pantry volunteers will follow current COVID-19 guidelines, including social distancing, face covering and hand hygiene, to ensure a safe environment.

Through the Pop Up Pantry, Heart to Heart continues to further the mission of First Community in serving others as God calls us to do and in meeting the needs of our local community during a time of a serious and widespread pandemic and increased food insecurity.

If you are interested in volunteering for this new opportunity, please contact Janice Rook or Melody Smiley

As Independence Day falls on a Saturday, we will be closed the preceding Friday, July 3, for volunteer shifts. We wish you all a fun and safe holiday.

• Click here to be added to First Community prayer chain.

This picture seen here was put in the Whole Foods Markert on Dublin Rd. It was a paint by number that was open for the community to come in to paint. The image was created by Jeremy Arts Studio. The canvas we first had installed on the side of the building of the annex dry rotted and is now replaced by the canvas you now see. This partnership was created by the Harmony Project. Whole Foods Market on Lane Ave also donated enough food that lasted us at least 3 months or more at that time back in 2013.

The Sign Up Genius has been posted for July and August. As Independence Day falls on a Saturday, we will be closed the preceding Friday, July 3, for volunteer shifts. We wish you all a fun and safe holiday.