May 15, 2024

This past week was incredibly momentous for the pantry.

On Wednesday (May 8) the pantry celebrated its 15th anniversary with a blessing of the Lord’s Acre of Fletcher and Tierra Fertile gardens, followed by a wonderful dinner with live music. Rev.  J. Clarkson gave a slide presentation of the history of the pantry and honored Carol Romine and Lois Pryor. They identified the need in our community and provided the vision and effort to open a food pantry in a small closet space in the Calvary Episcopal parish hall in 2009. The pantry now operates out of a 5,000 sq ft building, “The Center of Hope”.

 We also recognize and thank all the many volunteers (past and present), partner churches, community members, civic organizations, schools, retirement communities, donors, foundations, and all who have contributed in some way to this ministry of service to those experiencing food insecurity.

On the very next day, Thursday (May 9), the pantry received 18 pallets (27,691 pounds) of food generously donated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This was to be split between the pantry and Meals on Wheels. The Pantry’s portion was 18,171 pounds. The donated food included canned fruit, rice, pasta, peanut butter, shelf-stable milk, white flour, pinto beans, potato flakes and 112 boxes of assorted nutritional staple food items.

What was expected to take 2 days to unload, sort and divide the 18 pallets of food took 2-3 hours with the amazing help of 7 local Army Recruiters from Asheville and Hendersonville.   We are grateful to them for their service to our nation and our community.

May 11th was another busy morning in the pantry as we served 123 Households comprising 447 individuals.  We welcomed 7 new Households having 23 members. We continue to show increases over last year. Through 19 weeks Households served have increased 7% and individual counts within those Households have increased 11% compared to 2023.

Our most recent garden improvement is the planting of a pollinator garden which Michael Scruckmayr has taken on as his Eagle Project. Our Lord’s Acre bees are sure to enjoy the results of that effort.

The pantry garden is ramping up for the season.  On Saturday, over 100 heads of nutritious, leafy lettuce were harvested for our neighbors at the pantry.

 For The Executive Committee,

Fred Yopps,