Pantry coordinators Maureen and Janie shared another great story about young people helping in our community:

“The elementary school soccer players from All Saints and St. Vincent Ferrer parish schools do more than battle it out on the soccer field. They work hard to help their neighbors in need.

For three years now, the teams’ year-end celebration has included a drive to help stock the NEEDS pantry. Patrick Reardon, the league’s coordinator, takes care to contact the pantry each year for its list of most-needed items. This November, league volunteers delivered three carloads of donations — easily more than in the two preceding years.

We’re so grateful for all the effort by the teams’ volunteer staff members and players. Sportsmanship on steroids!”

Pantry coordinators Maureen and Janie shared this sweet story:

“Good Shepherd Lutheran Church has always been a faithful supporter of NEEDS and its food pantry. And now, even its littlest members are in on its efforts! The church’s well known preschool recently held a drive to help restock the NEEDS pantry. Michelle and Laurie, two of the school’s staff members, reached out to the pantry for our list of most-needed items and shared it with students’ families. The result? A full SUV of donations!

Beyond the value of the donations themselves, it’s gratifying to know that even the youngest among us are being taught to help their neighbors in need.

Thank you so much, Good Shepherd Lutheran Preschool!”

The feminine hygiene products that all women and their daughters need are not covered by SNAP benefits. But as most women know well, these products are expensive – and our donors rarely think to give them, so the NEEDS pantry has always had a hard time keeping them in stock.

Enter the Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group at Montgomery Community Church. When coordinators Maggie Link and Brianna Hagen learned of the pantry’s need, they appealed to their members to donate. What NEEDS expected to be a modest donation turned out to be an entire SUV full of one of our most-needed items. 

Thank you, MOPS members! You’ve done a lot to help less fortunate women and girls.

Pantry coordinators Maureen and Janie recently shared this wonderful story:

“The pantry had closed for the day, and the last of our volunteers were leaving the building when an SUV pulled quickly into our drive-through. Volunteers thought it was a neighbor arriving late to pick up food. Then the woman driving said, ‘Are you still open? Is this where we drop donations?’

Clara Henderson, retail operations manager at the nearby Kroger Technology Center, said she was there with a delivery. And what a delivery it was! Her SUV was jam-packed with laundry detergent, shampoo, deodorant, feminine hygiene supplies, and non-perishable food.

Ms. Henderson and her colleague, Caitlin Moore, a loss prevention analyst, explained that their Kroger team had met and decided not to celebrate their own work, but to give a gift to the community. They looked up food pantries located in the area and found NEEDS. Rather than just donate random items, they checked our ‘Most Needed’ list to provide us with exactly what we requested.

Kroger’s local Montgomery store also gives to NEEDS every Sunday — donating produce, bakery, deli items, and meat.

Thank you, Kroger, for all you do for NEEDS!”

NEEDS pantry coordinators Maureen and Janie recently shared this wonderful story about a faithful NEEDS partner:

“Several years ago, we noticed that every time we served one particular man he asked for more tuna. We joked with him about his love of tuna, and it was then that he told us he fed what we gave him to his cats. It was one of those “lightbulb” moments for our pantry’s staff. Of course, if our neighbors needed emergency food support it was only logical that their pets would as well.

We contacted local pet stores to see if they would donate cat and dog food. Many could not. But Pet Supplies Plus in Blue Ash agreed, as did their store in Harper’s Point.

But it was meeting Laura Patt, manager of the chain’s store in Independence, Kentucky, that truly gave our efforts momentum. Laura happened to be on loan to the Blue Ash store one evening when we stopped for donations. On hearing the story of NEEDS and its mission, she said we should pick up at her store — a much larger one than our local stores — as she had a lot to give us. Since then, she has asked to display our brochure as well as a sign we’ve made to solicit pet food donations.

This photo is from a recent pickup at Laura’s store in Independence, and features one of her employees. In the last week of September alone, she has generated an additional three SUVs — totally full of donations — to NEEDS and the people we serve. Those, again, came from the Blue Ash store where we first met her.

Thank you, Laura, from the bottom of our hearts!”