Harvest Food Outreach

Overview

What started as a single soup pot after Sunday service is now the valley's largest church-run food program: a licensed community kitchen, a refrigerated mobile pantry, and school backpack meals for 400 children every Friday.

The challenge

One in nine households in our county faces food insecurity, and most pantries keep weekday-morning hours that working families can't reach. Evening and weekend access was almost nonexistent.

Our approach

• Hot community dinners every Tuesday and Thursday, 5–7 PM — no ID, no questions.
• A mobile pantry route covering six neighbourhoods every Saturday morning.
• Backpack meals packed by youth groups for schoolchildren each Friday.
• Partnerships with 14 farms and grocers rescuing surplus fresh food.