35 years serving community: Honeoye Community Food Pantry

by Renee Thornton –

Unless you are someone that needs help making ends meet, food pantries often go unnoticed. even though they serve as vital ministries in many communities, including our own. In 1997, while studying food banks in the United States as part of my course work for a Bachelor of Science in Human Services Administration, I was introduced to the Honeoye Community Food Pantry, supported by the United Church of Christ (UCC) in Honeoye, NY.

The UCC Pastor at the time, Brian Krause, had heard about my food bank final and suggested I talk with the coordinators of the Honeoye Community Food Pantry. I don’t know if I was more astonished that Honeoye had a food pantry or embarrassed that I did not know and found out that it was located right in our own church.

I was hooked from that time on.

The Honeoye Community Food Pantry opened its doors in 1982. At that time it consisted of a few shelves stocked with food in the basement of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. It was run by Joyce Janowski whose faith, positive attitude and kind heartedness made her a natural fit as the entrepreneur of this non-profit organization. If someone needed food assistance they would simply call Joyce.

In 1993 the food pantry was relocated to the United Church of Christ (UCC) when a larger space became available there. This is where it is still located today. At that time, Lindy Bruce who was a member of the UCC congregation partnered with Joyce and they ran it together for 10 years.

During their tenure, they undertook the most critical role the pantry had ever taken on when they went through the process to become a certified 501C Non-Profit Organization. Once that was established they took filed all the paperwork and took all the required courses to become an affiliated service agency of Foodlink out of Rochester. Foodlink is a regional food hub and the Feeding America food bank serving Rochester and its 10 surrounding counties.   Foodlink distributes food to a network of human service agencies, such as the Honeoye Community Food Pantry. Last year, Foodlink distributed more than 17.4 million pounds of food. Before becoming a Foodlink service agency all food distributed by the food pantry was either donated or purchased with donated money. Since the alliance, Foodlink supplies on average over 70% of the food distributed by the Food Pantry.

During the first 10 years the food pantry had set hours and was open on Tuesday and Saturday mornings each week. It was no small task to ensure there was always a volunteer there. At that time the food distribution model was to prepare food boxes in advance and when a client came in they were handed one of the food boxes.

Since it was considered an “emergency” food pantry clients were to be limited to one food box each month and the pantry was supposed to only serve the residents of the Honeoye community. Anyone knowing how rural demographics work knows that the lines of demarcation can often be confusing. Said differently, no one was ever turned away because of where they lived, nor were they necessarily limited to one box a month if they were in need of feeding their family.   If I can say anything of my friend Joyce, she lived by exemplifying the golden rule.

When Lindy stepped down in 2003, after 10 years as co-coordinator, Pastor Brian asked me if I would consider taking on the coordinator role with Joyce. He did not need to ask twice. I had been volunteering at the pantry for 6 years already and loved everything about it. Realizing Joyce’s husband Ed and Lindy’s husband Dave did a lot of the required heavy lifting, I soon recruited my husband Tom for his muscle and he took on the work of managing the stockroom and the Foodlink deliveries. That is no small undertaking.

In 2008, after 25 years of faithful service, Joyce stepped down as coordinator of the food pantry that she had started in 1982. At that time I had already taken over managing the food pantry finances and food orders. I often worried when the bank account was low. Needless to say, Joyce never did. I will always remember on her last day that she gave me a long hug and told me to always keep the faith and that one way or the other things always work out.

She was right! When Tom and I decided to step down in 2012 – after 9 years of being the coordinators, it truly had became a second full time job – we were thankful Don Fox, in his kind, soft spoken, compassionate way, agreed to take up the leadership reins. Today Don and a team of other volunteers share the duties and responsibilities that it takes to keep the food pantry going.

Through the years, the food pantry has continued to change to better meet the needs of the community as effectively as possible. As coordinators, my husband and I were able to see first hand the challenges of providing for others as well as the importance of a community pantry. In 2004 we started giving out milk, bread and eggs to supplement the canned and boxed goods. After dumping out 3 gallons of sour milk one day, the food pantry partnered with the Shur Fine food market in Honeoye to create a “voucher” program. On each visit a client is given a voucher that they take to the store to get a dozen eggs, a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. This proved to be a money saver for the pantry.

The biggest change though came at the request of Foodlink. Rather than giving out pre-made food boxes, Foodlink required that their service agencies move to the Client Choice model of food distribution. Away went the boxes and in their place new shelves were constructed in the pantry. Reusable shopping bags were purchased and distributed to the clients to use on each visit. Now, rather than simply handing a food box containing food that a client may not want let alone eat, they are handed a form to complete selecting the food items they actually need and prefer. The volunteers then fill their bags with the food from the shelves and refrigerators based on their list. It was a huge win-win for both the food pantry and the clients.

Many great programs were introduced over the years. Some have come and some have gone, others have morphed into something slightly different or a different way of administering them, but again the intent to meet the needs of our clients remains intact.

First published in Owl Light News print December 15, 2017.