WESTHAMPTON — Just over a year after opening in response to the pandemic, Westhampton’s food pantry is going strong.
The pantry, located at the Westhampton Congregational United Church of Christ, started last March in response to the pandemic, said Chris Wayne, a member of the church’s outreach committee who helped to establish the food bank.
“When it started, it was a very loose community structure,” Wayne said. “Folks were kind of chipping in where needed.”
Initially, the pantry was set up outside of the church, with some community members providing ice coolers to set up outside for perishable donations. As the food pantry became more established — and after a bear found its way into the outdoor food supply — the church opened its kitchen to the pantry.
The pantry works on an anonymous honor system — between closing and opening, anyone can show up to donate or collect donations, with no registration required. Everyone working with the pantry is a volunteer.
“This was just a community coming together and solving an issue that was needed, so everybody was communicating as to what types of things were needed, and that’s the nature of how it all transpired,” Wayne said.
Community engagement has remained high — when the church put out an announcement last week that the pantry was running low on donations, community members quickly refilled its shelves, Wayne said.
Wayne is not sure how long the pantry will remain functioning, as the church will eventually need to regain use of the kitchen when it fully reopens. He anticipates that demand for donations may go down as communities emerge from the pandemic, and that other area food banks will be better equipped to serve this need at that time. But if Westhampton residents continue to rely on the pantry, Wayne said that residents will adapt.
“As long as there’s a need in the community, we’ll find a way to address those needs,” he said.
The pantry is open Mondays and Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Fridays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.