It’s an hour before opening at Patchwork Pantry and clients are already forming lines in the sanctuary. The Community Mennonite Church kitchen becomes a hive of activity as volunteers fill grocery bags with canned vegetables, soup, macaroni and cheese, toilet paper, diapers, shampoo, and other food and household items. In the fellowship hall, more volunteers arrange interview tables, and several dozen chairs for clients to sit on as they wait to be interviewed and receive monthly supplies of food. Seven CMC members sit in the sanctuary with clients, offering a listening ear and a prayer if they want it.
“For those living on little or no income, several bags of free groceries once a month can make a difference,” says Sheri Hartzler, volunteer director. “We strive to make clients’ experiences at Patchwork Pantry nonthreatening, caring and nonjudgmental.”
Last May, Patchwork Pantry celebrated 20 years of feeding Harrisonburg and Rockingham County, Va., residents in need. The ecumenically-run pantry operates on Wednesday evenings at Community Mennonite Church, where local residents can receive a three-day supply of groceries for the month.
Each week, Patchwork serves an average of 50 families, or about 185 people, many of whom make $500 or less per month. Forty local volunteers, including up to 10 Community Mennonite Church members, help each week with tasks such as shelving food, filling bags, interviewing recipients, and handing out produce. Five CMC members also serve on the pantry’s board of directors.
Though Patchwork has always been a team effort, Hartzler says the pantry was largely inspired by the positive, eye-opening Mennonite Voluntary Service experience she had 20 years ago at Patchwork Central, a pantry in Evansville, Ind. There, Sheri learned the joys of running a food pantry.
“There is something very rewarding about working in a pantry giving people food, and seeing a tangible, visible need be met,” Hartzler explained.
Upon her return to Harrisonburg the following year, Hartzler learned there were no food pantries in the area that were open in the evenings when potential clients were off work, so she set out to help organize one. With the help of an interfaith board, hundreds of volunteers, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and numerous donors, Patchwork Pantry opened its doors a year later.
For Hartzler, one of the most fulfilling parts of both MVS and Patchwork Pantry was the opportunity to engage the community. During their year of MVS, Hartzler and her husband, Jay, who served with Habitat for Humanity, spent the year living in a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood with their 3- and 5-year-old sons. As the only MVS workers in Evansville, they jumped at the chance to befriend their neighbors and immerse themselves in the diverse community.
“Living in the neighborhood was a huge part of our experience,” Hartzler explained. “Unlike MVSers in other cities, we had our own house and it was just us, a young family. We had neighborhood children over all the time, games of Sorry!, cookie bakes, you name it. Our boys loved it and so did we.”
Twenty years later, the Hartzlers continue to contribute to their community via Patchwork Pantry. Sheri, who also works as director of electronic media at MennoMedia, says the pantry has been a great way to intersect with people outside of the Mennonite world and connect the church with the broader community.
"My community now includes Mildred, who has come almost every month since the pantry opened for the past 20 years, and now we also serve her children; Jackie, who comes for food after she works as a volunteer at her church’s clothes closet; Steve, who comes early so he can help set up tables and chairs; and so many others—people from Honduras, Mexico, Iraq, Iran and Russia,” Hartzler said.
Clients appreciate that they maintain their dignity.
"This church has been a real lifesaver for my family with food,” one client wrote anonymously. “My son and his four children are living with my husband and me, and with only one income it has been so very hard to make ends meet. You make me feel like a person and not a bum who has to ask or beg for food for my family."
“Our time in Evansville was a good reminder that you can be in service wherever you live,” Hartzler said. “One of my lifelong dreams was to do a service assignment overseas, but you don’t have to travel far to serve. It might not be as exciting, but it’s just as important to connect with and serve the people in your own home community.”
###
For immediate release.
Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, leads, mobilizes and equips the church to participate in holistic witness to Jesus Christ in a broken world. Media may contact Andrew Clouse at andrewc@mmnworld.net, 574-523-3024 or 866-866-2872, ext. 23024.
