NHFP Holiday Food Drive

New Hope Food Pantry is asking the Kansas City Community to help feed those in need in our community by hosting a Holiday Food Drive. It is our goal for 50 businesses or individuals to commit to hosting a food drive this year in order to collect items needed for our Christmas Holiday baskets given to families in need in our community every year. Items being collected this year are stuffing, canned green beans and corn, cake mixes, icing, gravy, cranberry sauce, instant potatoes, jello, canned fruit, and canned pumpkin.

The NHFP will drop off a barrel at your place of business or home on a Saturday and pick it up on the following Friday so all you have to do is get friends, family, customers, and neighbors to donate items and place them in the barrel. NHFP will do the rest. All of your collected and donated food stays here in our community. We are not a national organization operating on a corporation’s values, but we are a collection of loving people from all over this community who want to make sure no one goes hungry, especially during the holidays when work has slowed down for many people.

As always, if you would rather donate online to go to NHFoodPantry.org and click the DONATE button.

Volunteers Are Always Needed at New Hope Food Pantry!

Volunteers are always needed at New Hope Food Pantry! If you’ve ever volunteered anywhere, it’s probably no surprise to you that volunteers come and go like a revolving door. So we decided to talk about the different ways people can help volunteer in order to keep the food pantry operating to feed the families in need in Johnson & Miami County. Here’s some volunteering ideas. Can you help with any of these?

• Girl Scout or Boy Scout Troops with service projects – build us something, volunteer on a Saturday Mobile Food Pantry
• Pick up groceries at pre-determined appointments and deliver to New Hope Food Pantry
• Hold an food drive, no matter how small, we take it all!
• Like our Facebook page to watch for volunteer opportunities to fit your schedule
• Pick up a 2-3 hour shift in the New Hope Food Pantry filling grocery orders for people in Johnson County
• Sports team – donate left over Halloween Candy
• Can some fruits and veggies for the New Hope Food Pantry
• Organizations send groups to work the Harvesters Mobile Food Pantry 1 Saturday a month

Of course, anyone can volunteer in any of these ways at the New Hope Food Pantry, and the above ideas are only meant as ideas and can be adapted to meet almost any group you are involved in. If you would like to volunteer in some capacity, please call 913.782.0955 or email nhfoodpantry@gmail.com. Also, we always take ideas, so if you know of a way to increase our volunteer base, feel free to leave a comment or contact us. Thanks!

Watch this Kansas City Food Pantry Video

Looking for Food Pantry information? Watch this Kansas City Food Pantry Video taken at the September 2014 Mobile Food Pantry provided by Harvesters of KC and distributed in the New Hope Food Pantry parking lot located in Olathe to Johnson County families in need.

We were so grateful for the extra volunteers that showed up last Saturday to sort and pass out assistance food, because it was one of the busiest months since Harvesters started dropping off at New Hope Food Pantry (NHFP). As you probably know, finding and keeping volunteers can sometimes be very challenging. Last Saturday, God blessed this outreach ministry with several groups of people that came to help. There is always a need for help, so for groups out there looking for a cause to support, businesses wanting to do good will in the community, or kids needing community service hours, consider sending people to the New Hope Food Pantry. We are estimating over 50,000 people served by the end of the year. We need you!

Mobile Food Pantry is just one piece of how New Hope Food Pantry feeds the Johnson County Community. It is held 1 Saturday a month and perishable food is portioned out to families in need. The New Hope Food Pantry is open Monday-Friday from 1-6pm in which perishables and non-perishables are given out, determined by the size of the family, and the Holy Spirit moving through volunteers as they fill a shopping cart for our neighbors. NHFP allows 1 person from a Johnson County residence to come once a month to the Food Pantry as well as attend the Harvesters Mobile Food Pantry, so basically families needing food assistance can get food twice a month here. They can also come in once a week to the Food Pantry to pick up more bread, by designating their visit as “bread only”.

If you would like more information on the New Hope Food Pantry, the Harvesters Mobile Food Pantry or food assistance for families in the Johnson County / Kansas City metro area call 913.782.0955 or contact us via Facebook.com/NHFP.Olathe visit our website at NHFoodPantry.org. If you are a church in the Kansas City area that would like to Partner with the New Hope Food Pantry, call the Food Pantry and ask specifically for Jim Linker, the NHFP Director.

New Hope Food Pantry (NHFP) is Growing!

The New Hope Food Pantry (NHFP) is growing! That probably isn’t new news to you, but if you take a step back and look at how big the NHFP has grown since its inception in April 2011, it actually is big news! Until now, the New Hope Food Pantry has been mostly managed by a few key players and the help of many volunteers, but because of the growth we’ve had exponentially, we’ve had to literally overhaul the New Hope Food Pantry from a few people collecting food for hungry people to an organization able to handle growth of almost any size in order to fulfill a need in the community.

The last few months, NHFP has spent hours building better communication systems, a strategic plan for growth, and putting the key players in place that now make up the NHFP Executive Board. With this new infrastructure in place, the NHFP will be better equipped to handle larger food drives and donations, able to pursue new fundraising opportunities, and ready for new reciprocal partners that want to come together with the common goal of feeding our local community. We have already noticed a big difference, and we are excited to see the growth these changes will make in 2015!

If you would like information on holding a food drive, volunteering at the NHFP, or have questions about services we provide or how we help the local community, call 913.782.0955. You can also interact with us on Facebook at Facebook.com/NHFP.Olathe or visit the New Hope Food Pantry web page at NHFoodPantry.org.

Harvesters Mobile Food Pantry in July Recap

It was another successful Harvesters Mobile Food Pantry in July at New Hope Presbyterian Church of  Olathe. It was a hot and sunny Saturday morning as many Johnson County residents gathered on 7/12/14. The sun was shining down on volunteers as they sorted food into portions that was dropped off by the pallet in the parking lot of the church to distribute to families in need. Smiles seemed to grace everyone’s faces despite being one of the warmer days in Kansas City this summer.

 

 

Laughter could be heard by people gathered outside their cars while they waited in line as well as the volunteers working quickly trying to get all the portions ready to hand out. Everyone seems genuinely happy to be there last Saturday. “It’s an amazing feeling when the community comes together and loves one another on a mass scale like this”, says Caylon Huckabay, a New Hope Food Pantry volunteer. Finally, sorting is almost over, and the line starts moving around 9:30am.

 

 

The cars are instructed to pull up to each cone as volunteers from each stack of food comes up and puts appropriate portions of perishable food in the trunk or backseat or wherever the person requests. It is fun to walk up and down the portion line listening to the volunteers and the community exchange a plethora of thank you’s or God bless you’s as everyone truly seems so happy to be there. In July, Harvesters dropped off cucumbers, potatoes, cantaloupe, nectarines, bananas, radishes, mushrooms, and so much more.

 

If you know a Johnson County family in need of food assistance, please tell them about the New Hope Food Pantry in Olathe. The Harvesters Mobile Food Pantry is the second Saturday of every month, weather permitting. The New Hope Food Pantry is open M-F from 1-6pm.

What Time is the Mobile Food Pantry?

 We often get asked, “What time is the mobile food pantry?” For people who haven’t heard of this, the Mobile Food Pantry is a Harvesters drop in Olathe of perishable groceries for people in Johnson County who drive through in cars to pick up free food assistance. Harvesters releases food before it spoils out to the community to feed it instead of letting it go to waste in a warehouse. The New Hope Food Pantry is a mobile drop location. Do you need a little bit of help? Do you know someone who does? In this economy, you don’t have to look far to find a 50+ year old neighbor who was just laid off and worried about how to pay bills and feed a family. Maybe you know a kid out of college still waiting tables because there isn’t many jobs available, and those loans don’t wait forever.

Cars waiting in line for food assistance in the New Hope Presbyterian Church parking lot and down the street out front of the Church.

So back to the original thought of this blog post…when is it? Well, that’s a little bit trickier question to answer. The Harvesters truck usually arrives around 9 am, but volunteers are tasked with sorting and separating for distribution before the line begins moving. By that time, there are 5-6 rows of cars crammed in the parking lot and a line out on the street. Would you believe people arrive before sunrise to get in line? It is a long line, despite our organized and coordinated efforts. If you come earlier, you’ll be more likely to get a little bit of everything, as some food is gone by the end of the line. That’s why some people get here before sunrise. It is usually over and done by noon.

Did you realize there were that many people needing help these days? We feed a lot of seniors, and single parents with kids. When you look around Johnson County, a very privileged and affluent county in America today, it can be easy to over look, but there are people struggling with unemployment or disabilities that need help. Come check out the Mobile Food Pantry or tell someone about it who you know could use some help. The next Mobile Food Pantry is 5/10/14. You can decide what time to come. 

Requirements to get Food at the Food Pantry

There are requirements to get food at the food pantry at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Olathe, KS. Don’t fret, they are easy to acquire in order to qualify for free food when in need. Because we partner with Harvesters in Kansas City, we are required to only serve families in Johnson County, therefore, we need certain documentation in order to prove your residency here every time you come.

First, you need to bring a valid ID, preferably a driver’s license or state issued ID. However, other documentation will be accepted, like a passport. For questions regarding valid identification for food distribution, please call the food pantry at 913-782-0955.

You also will have to bring a second proof of residency, like a utility bill (gas, electric, or water). Phone bills are not currently accepted as proof of residency. If you have questions about what kind of utility bill to bring, call the food pantry before driving over. Please note that these items need to be brought in every time you come to pick up food at the pantry.

This is not applicable for the Mobile Food Pantry that happens in the parking lot once a month, but only for the New Hope Food Pantry on site of New Hope Presbyterian that is open M-F 1-6pm currently. For more information regarding the New Hope Food Pantry in Olathe, KS, check out the website at: http://bit.ly/NHpantry or call 913-782-0955.

April Mobile Food Pantry

 It was a perfect day for our April Mobile Food Pantry (4/12/14), if you didn’t mind a little wind. There was sunshine and warmth that was well needed after this past winter. Fewer cars showed up compared to the previous Mobile Food Pantry, which could be encouraging if it was because fewer people are in need at this time, however, it was also speculated by some volunteers that it could be due to two previous Mobile Food Pantry deliveries were cancelled due to inclement weather. Either way, everyone there was in good spirits and the beautiful weather only contributed to the happy conditions felt by all on the epitome of a perfect spring day.

873 people were fed through the April Mobile Food Pantry.  The breakdown we served was 186 Johnson County households, which included 387 children, 416 adults, and 70 seniors. These households received free food assistance provided by Harvesters that included items like Greek yogurt, lettuce, mashed potatoes, 10 lb bags of potatoes, melons, onions, apples, oranges, strawberries and lots more! For more information regarding the New Hope Presbyterian Food Pantry or the Harvester’s Mobile Food Pantry, visit our website at http://nhfoodpantry.com/. A huge thank you to Jim Linker and Elaine Davis who do so much to help families in Johnson County feed their families with dignity and respect, and to the many nameless volunteers who donate countless hours in the volunteer positions that make the New Hope Food Pantry successful in helping our neighbors in a time of need.

Next Harveter’s Mobile Food Pantry:  May 10th (weather permitting).

 

 

Donate Food to a Johnson County Food Pantry

Donate food to a Johnson County Food Pantry and help feed your community! The New Hope food pantry is partnered with Harvesters, but we also rely on community donations to feed everyone. Consider hosting a food drive through your job, or hold a more informal food drive over social media, collecting food from friends who pledge, and drop off your donations anytime to the Food Pantry at New Hope.

We are always in need of meat, cereal, and soup, but also consider canned vegetables, canned fruit, or snacks. Donations can be dropped off at the food pantry when they’re open or closed. The food pantry hours are M-F 1-6pm, but if you come while it’s closed, simply place your food donations in the white bin outside the entrance. 

If you would like to arrange to have barrels placed somewhere for a formal food drive, contact Jim Linker at the food pantry. Call 913-782-0955 and if Jim isn’t available, leave a message regarding a food drive. A huge thank you to everyone in the community who has raised food to help families here locally! Many businesses through the Olathe Chamber have stepped up to help out, but unfortunately, hunger is an ongoing problem, so we need to continually receive new donations. If God has laid it on your heart to help, please give us a call!

April Mobile Food Pantry

Because of inclement weather, the past few Harvesters Mobile Food Pantry deliveries have been cancelled. This is a hard decision to make, because we know there are families out there that need help, and we are glad Spring is here for that reason! Our next Harvesters Mobile Food Pantry is scheduled for Saturday, April 12th and we don’t foresee a cancellation, but of course, stranger things have occurred.

The regular Food Pantry is still open Monday-Friday from 1pm-6pm and is located on the North side of New Hope Presbyterian Church in Olathe and is open to any Johnson County family that needs food assistance. There is a new database in the food pantry, so please allow a few extra minutes the next time you come in order for us to get a little more information from you in order to keep our database current. You will only have to do this once, so if you have already updated your information recently, you will not have to do it again.

We look forward to seeing everyone soon! 

God is Love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16