WELLMAN

For the past 20 years, the Wellman Food Pantry has served the community from the basement of Asbury United Methodist Church, making sure families are fed and households adequately stocked with essentials. To celebrate this milestone anniversary, the pantry is holding a Soup & Chili Cookoff on Sunday, Feb. 2 from noon to 2 p.m., and they hope you will attend.

“We’ve gotten several folks to donate soups of all different kinds, so they’ll get to taste the soups, and then we’re going to have them vote on the best soup, the one that they prefer,” Lori Reece, the food pantry’s coordinator, says. “We’ll have a donation jar by the soup, so you can vote with dollars, and then we’ll see which one is the winning soup at the end.”

It's a fun way to enjoy lunch and support the food pantry, which has seen increasing demand over the last two decades. On their first day of distribution, 13 families collected goods; today, some 80-90 households are served by the pantry each month.

All are invited to the Soup & Chili Cookoff; you need not be a church member to attend.

“We’d love to have everyone come in,” Reece says. “We’ll have soup, sandwiches, little treats, desserts. Several years ago we were able to upgrade our kitchen, so [we’d like to] show off our new kitchen that we haven’t been able to use very much since the pandemic.”

Attendees are also invited to bring in canned goods to fill the pantry, although they are not required to do so.

The Wellman Food Pantry was born out of a need Asbury Methodist missions committee members perceived as a result of their roles in Mid-Prairie schools.

“They noticed kids coming in hungry in the morning, and they were buying cereal bars to get them going in the morning. They felt that there was a need, that we needed to kind of step up and help out,” Reece explains. “The Food Pantry evolved out of that need, and we decided to open our church up and hold the food pantry once a month.”

That was 2005. Much has happened since then: the Great Recession, the COVID pandemic. Most recently, government assistance programs have ended, inflation has risen, and housing costs have increased, putting additional pressure on household finances. More and more people could use a little help.

Initially the Wellman Food Pantry invited people in once a month to pick up supplies and visit, but the pandemic put an end to that. The pantry pivoted to a drive-up method, where volunteers bagged groceries in advance and distributed them to those who pulled up during pantry hours. Today, that’s still how the food pantry works; on the first Saturday of the month, from 9 to 10:30 a.m., folks can drive up to the church and collect goods without leaving their vehicles.

And those folks are well taken care of.

“Everyone gets a bag of groceries – canned soups, canned veggies, tuna, mac and cheese, Hamburger Helper – staples like that,” Reece says. “Then they also get a bag of paper products – paper towels, toilet paper. And then we also give them a box of cereal, some laundry soap, things like that.”

That’s not the end of it.

“We are fortunate to work with Freeman Foods downtown, that we can also provide each person who comes to the food pantry a voucher, which is good for a month down at Freemans, and they are allowed to get a free gallon of milk, free eggs, free loaf of bread, and then any fresh produce up to a $10 value,” she adds.

The pantry has truly become a community-wide effort, with churches in Wellman and surrounding communities contributing food and funds; grocery stores like Freeman Foods and Hy-Vee, which provides pastries and baked goods, helping out; and individuals who provide time and donate money.

Local schools, like West Elementary and Hillcrest Academy, conduct food drives that help stock the pantry, and even local gardeners contribute fresh produce.

“Wellman has a community garden, and you can buy a small plot and have a garden up there, and part of your bounty that you raise goes to the food pantry,” Reece notes. “This summer we had kale, spinach, tomatoes, all kinds of stuff. We get a lot of donations from the gardeners, and people love that.”

The pantry is grateful for all of the support is has received over the last 20 years.

“It’s a blessing that we’re still here,” Reece says.

For those who could use the Food Pantry’s help, distribution takes place the first Saturday of the month from 9-10:30 a.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church in Wellman. There are no residency or income requirements; anyone is welcome to receive food. The Food Pantry routinely serves neighbors from Kalona, Keota, West Chester, and other communities.

For those who would like to support the Food Pantry, the Soup & Chili Cookoff is Sunday, Feb. 2 from noon to 2 p.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church in Wellman. Canned goods and monetary donations are welcome. If you would like to send a check, mail to Asbury United Methodist Church, PO Box 540, Wellman, IA 52356 and note “Food Pantry” in the memo.