Eagle Rock Church debuts new building for its Pickerington food pantry

PICKERINGTON − Eagle Rock Church has operated its food pantry for more than 20 years. But it recently opened a new pantry building on church grounds to make helping the needy easier.

"Its a great improvement," Pastor Les Bowling said. "I kind of like to call it the Hub of Hope for Humanity. It's one of the basics of life. If I can get something to eat I can survive. So with the little building out there that stores food, regardless of anytime day or night or throughout any week of the year, we will have food in there to feed hungry people. It's great blessing and we thank God for it."

The pantry has a variety of foods for those in need, including the basics like flour, vegetables and canned goods. The church in December fed 279 people. Eagle Rock administrative assistant Christyn Crockett said the church needed to expand the pantry because of the increasing number of people it serves and got a $9,000 grant from the Fairfield Foundation.

The pantry is part of the church's "Compassion in Action" mission and was previously housed in another part of the church campus at 6810 Blacklick-Eastern Rd NW.

Outreach admissions coordinator Gary Pelotshweu said in the past the church had to contact other entities to get rid of excess food it couldn't store.

"But with this building we're able to store the food and when people in our neighborhood want to come, they can just come and get the food," he said.

Pelotshweu said the next step is to buy a walk-in freezer for the new building to store meat.

"We do get frozen foods sometimes from restaurants like McDonald's and things like that, and they need refrigeration," he said.

Most of the pantry's food comes from the Mid-Ohio Food Collective, though. The agency mandates the church to give people at least nine meals when they visit the pantry.

"We try to make sure people now, especially with people losing jobs and different things like that, that they'll be taken care of with what we have," Pelotshweu said. "Most people that come in say, 'Can I get some more stuff for my kids.' When people don't have food some of the first people they think about is their children and they'll get as much stuff as they need."

Besides the food pantry, Eagle Rock also gives free coats and shoes to those in need.

"So we try to offer a lot of different things during the time that they're here for the food," Pastor Sheila Bowling said. "Like one time we had a Medicare assistant here that could help people get signed up for Medicare and answer questions. So it is a food bank, but we also offer different services to the community."

Call the church at 614-833-9288 for more information on the services it offers.

jbarron@gannett.com

740-681-4340

Twitter: @JeffDBarron