FORTVILLE — Boxes of spaghetti noodles have piled up at one church. Cans of green beans have accumulated at another, cans of fruit at still another.
Together the churches participating, each assigned a different item, plan to fill Italian-themed food boxes to give to 600 families on March 6.
Week to week, the group of churches stocks a food pantry that’s open Tuesdays at one of the churches. Those pantry hours shifted to a drive-thru format last March with the onset of COVID-19 in the area.
Need has picked up, but so has their collaboration. From this group and its food relief efforts, a new entity is taking shape: Fortville Area Resource Mission, or FARM.
The group is hiring an executive director; it’s interviewed candidates and narrowed those down to finalists. Each finalist will visit on a Tuesday to take part in food distribution and the next round of interviews as the group pinpoints its choice.
FARM also hopes to build on property that would be donated by Fortville Christian Church. The pantry currently operates out of the FCC building at 9450 N. County Road 200W, where the church has for now refashioned its fellowship hall into a food warehouse.
“Before COVID we were serving an average of 55 families each week,” said Erin Flick, who directs the food pantry. “We now have an average of 148 families each week.”
Amid that steep increase in demand, volunteers from other churches would come to help deliver food to cars on Tuesdays or to sort on the weekends. At one point Flick gave several churches 100 cloth grocery bags each and a list of items to fill each bag.
Similarly, students from Mt. Vernon High School’s Campus Life and Fellowship of Christian Athletes groups have helped out at food distribution times, particularly during a stint last year when pantry organizers were trying to shield their volunteers 65 and older.
The community collaboration has also included the Vernon Township Trustee’s office, which refers residents seeking relief to the pantry, and through the pantry shares information with pantry visitors about other community resources available.
“The sustained demand for food pantry services in our area has been record high for more than 8 months,” Trustee Florence May wrote in an email. “The collaborative efforts of our area churches have been instrumental in helping more than one hundred families in difficult situations.
“The sustained community needs have called for extensive support hours. I am heartened and grateful to see the local collaboration of churches evolve with staff and a growing partnership with Gleaners. We are fortunate to have a community so committed to caring for those in dire circumstances.”
FARM has entered a partnership with Gleaners that allows it to buy food through the food bank. Flick said this saves money and also time; it’s been difficult to buy in bulk from stores amid COVID, and Gleaners will deliver.
FARM organizers say they’ve realized in recent years how much farther they can go when they work together. They hope an executive director can help FARM acquire grants, and that with a staff member and a building they can be available more than two hours on Tuesdays — by adding an evening distribution time slot, for example.
Brandon Gore, who attends Fortville Christian and works for an architectural firm in Indianapolis, has been part of the discussions of what a new building should include, such as a covered canopy that would allow volunteers to serve two or three cars at once when pantry hours must be drive-thru.
Besides food storage, FARM organizers also envision office space and room for counseling sessions and other ways to help people navigate challenges.
Rick Doll, who attends Mercy Road Church Northeast, recalls a prayer request shared by a woman receiving food before Thanksgiving. She said she just needed a better job.
He remembers when he was laid off a few years ago and how different job searching looks today from 20 years ago. He thinks of people who might welcome enhanced education or training, or just someone to help tailor a resume.
“What FARM does for us is it allows us to meet more than just the food need,” he said. “There are people in poverty for a number of different reasons. If people are needing the basic necessities of life, often there are other needs in their life that are needing to be met … to get them through their hardships and maybe get them over them.
“From that perspective, I’m excited.”
