Community Food Pantry is Business of the Year

By Jim Tiffin
Staff Writer

Rev. Reuben Thomas of the United Methodist Church in Grants reorganizes the storage room at the Grants Community Food Pantry Monday. The pantry was named Grants Business of the Year Saturday. (Photo by Jerry Wilson/Independent)

GRANTS — The Community Food Pantry is the Business of the Year.

The announcement came during the Grants-Chamber of Commerce Annual Banquet Saturday night.

Reuben Thomas, minister of First United Methodist Church in Grants, said he appreciates the chamber recognizing a service organization.

"What we are all called to do is to make each person's life better and the real beauty of this effort (food pantry) is it is not just one church, but many," he said.

In 2004, the food pantry served just under 20,000 people, averaging 383 per week. The pantry is an outreach of the Gallup Community Food Pantry and was started in August 2003.

"We were established to reach the hungry in this county and our mission is to see that no one in Cibola County goes hungry," Thomas said.

Six local churches staff the Grants Community Pantry five days a week with between 20-25 people, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

What about people who need help when the pantry is not open, like after hours and on weekends?

"We respond when churches and police send us people when they break down or are in need. I have a key and another pastor has a key and we go down and open up and help them," he said. "We are on Interstate 40 and people break down.

"We help the homeless and those who are on fixed incomes too," he said.

The pantry allows people to get food once each week and anyone is eligible.

On Fridays, the pantry distributes commodities, which requires an income eligibility. That eligibility goes from under $1,385 for one person, to under $3,321 for a family of five, on a monthly basis.

Commodities are those foods distributed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and includes such items as macaroni, rice and beef stew.

Jim Harlin, executive director of The Community Pantry in Gallup, said Thomas contacted him as a follow-up to a program the Church of the Nazarene was doing before its pastor died a couple of years ago.

"He stepped up, contacted me and we did some surveys and decided there were enough people in need, in poverty in Cibola County, to make it worthwhile for them to have easier service," Harlin said.

Prior to the pantry opening in Grants, anyone seeking food had to travel to Gallup.

"He (Thomas) and other area ministers in Grants made a commitment to provide the service and we gave them a $10,000 grant for the building and another $10,000 in coolers and refrigeration expenses," Harlin said.

When those 383 people take home food every week, there is a multiplier effect. About another 1,000 people are fed from those food boxes every week, Harlin said.

Last year The Community Pantry's value was at $2.5 million and Cibola County's was about 20 percent of that, Harlin said.

"That means there was about $500,000 in food value being distributed free to Cibola County residents, homeless and needy," he said.

"Many churches have come together ... to feed the hungry and take care of our fellow human beings," Thomas said.

"We are the second poorest county in the state and there are a lot of hungry people here," Thomas said.

Local churches that staff the Grants pantry with volunteers, by day are: Monday, First United Methodist Church; Tuesday, Church of Christ; Wednesday, Church of the Nazarene; Thursday, First Baptist; and Friday, New Life Assembly of God.

Star Gonzales-Elkins, executive director of the chamber, said the selection was made because of the pantry's service to the community.

There are always at least four people or businesses that are considered by the chamber for the award each year, she said. The chamber recognizes either a person or a business for the honor.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call 287-2197 or e-mail: jtiffin@blackmesa-isp.net.