Seed Faith Food Pantry Founder, Marie Berry, hopes community partners will help her build a much-needed addition onto the pantry. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

BY SHERI TRUSTY

GYPSUM – When people arrive at Seed Faith Food Pantry each Monday at 11:30 a.m., they stand outside to pick up their food – even if it’s cold, even if it’s hot, even if it’s raining, even if it’s icy. There just simply isn’t room inside the food pantry to distribute food. The pantry is meeting the needs of so many people, there is no longer room to store all the food to meet their needs.

The pantry’s founder, Marie Berry, hopes to build an addition to the building that houses the pantry and Lighthouse Center Resale Shop, which funds the pantry. The addition would provide food storage; a warm, dry distribution area; and space for community meals.

Berry is desperately seeking help to fund the project.

“We’re serving in the sweltering hot, in the ice, in the rain,” she said. “Our numbers are through the roof. We serve about 125 people a week. We don’t have enough storage to keep the food.”

To further help their clients, the food pantry hosts resource fairs that bring representatives from local organizations to connect pantry clients with services that can assist them. The next resource fair will be held in November and will include the Ottawa County Health Department, Erie County Health Department, Ottawa County Senior Resources, Ottawa County Veterans Service Office, and job and insurance resources. If an addition is not built by then, they will, like always, set up outside under canopies regardless of the weather.

“These people all sit out in the cold,” Berry said.

Berry said the food pantry is ready to move forward with the project once funding is secured.

“We have the property, and we have zoning approval. We have the go-ahead. We just need the help,” she said.

Seed Faith Food Pantry is hoping businesses and individuals will partner with them to help them fund the addition.

“We’re looking for anyone who would like to partner with us. We’re a 501(c)(3), so all donations are tax deductible,” Berry said. “We would be grateful for anyone who wants to sacrifice $1,000 for the building fund or partner with us from the ground up.”

Food is stacked at Seed Faith Food Pantry, which no longer has room to meet the needs of its clients. (Photo by Sheri Trusty)

Help comes in many forms. Although financial donations are vital, there are other ways to invest in the building project.

“We need carpenters, materials and monetary donations. Any way you want to contribute will be a godsend,” Berry said. “The need is overwhelming. You can pay-it-forward or pray-it-forward. It’s important to God that the poor are taken care of, so much so that he wrote Scripture about it.”

Berry’s vision for the addition includes hosting occasional free, community monthly meals. The meals would fall into Seed Faith’s mission to not only feed people but also minister to them.

“I would love to feed people here, on site, even if it’s just once a month. I would love to get families together for meals like people used to,” she said. “The closer we get as a family, the stronger we are as a nation. We want to get families back together.”

Berry is open to moving the entire ministry to another site, if a building was made available. She simply wants to find a way to better serve the clients that come to the pantry each week for help. She knows there are generous people in the community, and she wants to help them understand the depth of need around them.

“It’s important to God that we take care of others who have genuine needs. When we do that, it’s better for our community. It’s better for our families. I know there are people who want to help, and they don’t know we are here,” she said. “The people who need us know we’re here. The line trails down the road and wraps around the post office.”

Seed Faith Food Pantry is located at 974 S. Lake St. in Gypsum. Anyone who would like to donate or has questions about partnering on the project can call Marie Berry at 419-732-2399.

“You can stop by for a personal tour, and I can show you the vision I have for expanding for the residents of Ottawa County,” she said.