CORRECTION: This article was updated July 12 with corrected information provided by Director of the Chard Wray Food Pantry Jill Rochon. The Baldwin Bulletin apologizes for the inconvenience our mistakes may have caused.
Chard Wray Food Pantry received a $12,000 Operation Roundup grant from Tri County EMC for the purchase of food for the food insecure.
According to its website, the grant is funded by the voluntary contributions of Tri-County EMC members to the Tri-County EMC Foundation. Non-profit organizations can apply for grant money to go toward community projects and needs. All funding requests are reviewed and considered by the foundation’s nine-member board of directors.
“When we were told about the grant, I took over writing the application for our funding requests. It took three versions of the application, but I learned through this process how to write future grant requests and properly support our application,” said Denise Hay, Chard Wray Food Pantry grant seeker. “We are beyond thankful for being able to receive it and it allowed us to purchase over 20,000 pounds of food for the pantry. The majority of that is already gone home to feed families in our community.”
Started in 1974, under the St. Stephen's Episcopal Church ministry, The Chard Wray Food Pantry provides groceries to families, seniors and others who do not have cooking access or the ability to provide for themselves. The pantry is staffed by volunteers from local community groups and churches and is always accepting donations to be able to purchase food.
“We are grateful for direct food donations, but monetary donations help us so much because the staff knows exactly what we are missing and can go out and fill that exact need with the donations,” said Jill Rochon, director of the pantry. “We are consistently running low on food due to the high need in our community so it can be hard to publicly post what we need at any given time because it is constantly changing.”
Last year the pantry served 200 families a month, which increased to 500 families a month as of June this year. According to Rochon, that is about 1,700 individuals who come to the pantry every 30 days to receive food assistance.
“We have a lot of partners who donate food like Flag Chapel, First Methodist Church, and Georgia College. Through Feed America, we received donated food from Publix and Kroger. However, most of our food is bought through the Middle Georgia Food Bank,” said Rochon. “Many people often think we receive that food for free but in actuality we purchase, just at a reduced cost so monetary donations are vital to the pantry’s stability.”
Rochon and Hay, alongside volunteers, pick-up at Publix three times a week and at Kroger once a week to fill the pantry. Individuals pick-up food Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from the pantry from 9 a.m. to noon, with approximately 150 families being served each week.
“Volunteering is also a huge way to show support for the pantry. We have volunteers as young as eight-years-old working with their adults and we offer volunteer hours for anyone who may need them,” said Rochon.
If interested in volunteering, contact Chard Wray Food Pantry at 478-414-1126. If wanting to donate monetarily, scan the QR code attached to this article.
“We plan to apply for this grant again in the future and we are actively working to find more suppliers to partner with,” said Hay. “We appreciate any and all support we receive. It makes a difference to so many families and individuals and ensures we can continue to provide for a long-time.”