Feeding Families

The pantry is only two years old, but it helps hundreds of families.

By JEANNE STARMACK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

Outside the St. Lucy and St. Rose of Lima parish center last Wednesday, an onslaught of cold rain was coming down like a whip.

Inside, though, the Difference Makers Food Pantry in Campbell was running with the warm hum of a well-tended machine.

Volunteers were waiting, dozens strong, to help people who were lining up to get their shopping carts.

Freezers were stocked with meat and frozen dinners, and shelves were full of canned goods, crackers, pasta, rice and cereal. A table was heaped high with bags of bread and rolls.

Stacks of donated clothing invited browsers to one end of the room, and at the other, volunteers stood ready to pack up people’s groceries.

Outside, produce that included potatoes, cabbage, spinach, carrots, onions and squash was available along with juice and bottled water.

There were 20,000 pounds of food in all that the pantry planned to move that day, said its chief administrator, Victor Buck of Struthers.

Typically open twice a month, the pantry depends on 125 volunteers, with 50 to 60 of them there at one time, he said. Alfredo Solis of Youngstown, who calls himself Buck’s “left-hand man,” coordinates those volunteers.

Last week on Tuesday, members of the Campbell Memorial High School basketball team had unloaded trucks and stocked the shelves. Members of the Ursuline High School football team were on hand Wednesday to help people carry groceries to their cars.

“Without these volunteers, we’re nobody,” said Solis.

For a food pantry that’s only two years old, Difference Makers is living up to its name. When it opened in May 2008, it served 88 families, Buck said. On Wednesday, he expected 377 families.

Nancy Woodrum of Campbell was there for her family. She’s used the pantry before.

“I come at [midnight] and sit outside all night long, waiting until 7:30 when they pass out the numbers,” she said.

People with higher numbers can leave and come back later, eliminating long lines outside.

Wednesday, Woodrum was No. 9. She picked out pasta, canned goods, meat and cough syrup for her family of three.

“It helps out,” she said.

Jim Cioffi, Campbell’s school board president, would be carrying Woodrum’s bags to her car.

“There’s no better way to spend two hours,” he said about volunteering.

Ursuline senior Tony Brown, 18, concurred. “I’m fortunate enough to go to Ursuline,” he said. “I want to give back.”

There are income guidelines to use the pantry, but it knows no geographical restrictions.

“Anyone who needs food, we want to help,” Buck said.

The pantry survives wholly on donations.

Henry Nemenz’s grocery stores donated the shopping carts and shelves and also donates food. Bread Chef on Western Reserve Road donates some of the bread. The church does not charge rent for the basement.

With a budget of $50,000, the pantry spent $3,000 to $4,000 a month this year at Nemenz IGA and Second Harvest Food Bank, Buck said.

Difference Makers, which is a charitable group based in Hubbard, will mail between 750 to 900 fund-raising letters soon, he said — all the money is used for the pantry. No one draws a salary.

The Difference Makers group has been around since 1993, said the Rev. Tim O’Neill, pastor at St. Patrick Church in Hubbard and a co-founder of the group. Buck, another co-founder, said he approached Rev. O’Neill about establishing the pantry as a way to give back after retiring from work.

The Rev. Mr. O’Neill said the pantry seemed like it would be a big undertaking, but Buck “took the bull by the horns.” He credited Buck and Solis with keeping operations smooth.

O’Neill said Difference Makers has always assisted people who need food, help with gas bills or a ramp built to accommodate a disability. The pantry, he said, is an extension of that mission.