All posts by Lima CUP

The Churches United Pantry of Lima, Ohio, provides people with a three day supply of food on a once a month basis. It is an ecumenical partnership of 10 Lima Area churches.

CUP’s Little Library

Rachel Clymer loves to read and has always had easy access to books. She wanted to spread her love of reading while earning the Girl Scout’s highest award, the Gold Award. To earn the award, she had to identify an issue in the community that she cared about, research it, and take action to address it. Providing easy access to books for people who may not have many is one way to encourage literacy, so the idea of creating a free library was born.

CUP patrons are welcome to browse through the collection and borrow volumes, and donations to the library are welcome.

Feeding Our Hungry Neighbors: 2021 Summary

Despite the ravages of the pandemic, CUP continued its mission of feeding our hungry neighbors through all of 2021. Because we wanted to protect both our clients and our volunteers, we changed procedures and processes as needed, and we appreciated everyone’s patience as we adjusted.

The basic stats and info for 2021 are as follows:

We served 1266 different households throughout 2021, a total of 3389 different people.

In total, we served meals to 8565 people over the course of the year, counting our clients who we served more than once. Each time they came to CUP, they received food for three days’ worth of meals. In other words, CUP provided 77,085 meals to our clients during 2021.

Children under 18 were 26% of our cliental; seniors (60+) were 19% . Nearly 30 people over the age of 85 are included in our client list.

We have a budget of around $30,000 a year, all provided by donations and our church partners

We have 45 volunteers keeping the pantry running on a day to day basis. All of our staff is volunteer, also: Peggie Stubbs, the president; Mary Stepleton, the vice-president; and Brian Clymer, the CUP treasurer.

Our clients are especially grateful when we have personal hygiene articles (soap, shampoo, toothpaste and brushes, toilet paper, feminine hygiene options) available. Those items are ones we can only stock when they are donated, so special thanks to the people and organizations who donate those.

CUP is open 3 days a week every week, and through the grace of God and the commitment of our donors and volunteers, we will continue to be open to feed our hungry neighbors. Thank you to all the individuals and churches who have made this possible.

We Are Thankful!

CUP has wonderful friends! The Asian American Association of Hotel Owners donated packets of personal care items for us to distribute to our clients . The packets include shampoo, lotion, toothbrush and toothpaste, Bandaids and feminine hygiene products.  Many thanks to the Association–we are blessed!

And the blessings continue with the National Guard members who are working hard to help us stay open during the pandemic.  A special shout out to the guard members in this picture: Amstutz, McKibben, Sims, and McDonald.

Even through this difficult time, CUP is meeting the needs of our hungry neighbors. We are so thankful!

 

Help Has Arrived

With stay at home orders coming from Governor Dewine due to the Covid-19 pandemic, CUP faced two dilemmas: our pantry badly needed restocked, and our volunteers needed to stay home. The National Guard came to our rescue! They picked up 18,000 pounds of food for us from West Ohio Food Bank, then shelved it.

For the time being, our clients pull their cars up to the side door and are greeted by members of the National Guard, who register the clients, then bring out their food. We are very grateful for this help! 

CUP Needs A Treasurer

Are you good with numbers? Do you have a heart for helping? Do you have a few hours a month that you could volunteer to be the treasurer for Churches United Pantry (CUP)?  CUP , a 501 C 3 organization, is looking for a treasurer.   To qualify to be our treasurer, you must have basic accounting knowledge, be responsible for accounts payable and receivable, make monthly reports to the board, be bondable, and be responsible for filing IRS form 990 yearly.  We can provide training and support to get a new treasurer up and running. CUP’s accounts receivable is less than $50,000 a year.  This is not a paid position, all CUP positions are volunteers.  If you are interested in talking with us about this position, contact limacup1@gmail.com.

If you’re not interested in helping as our treasurer but you’d like to volunteer in other ways, email us to learn about other opportunities, too!

Why Food Pantries Matter: Senior Hunger

“In 2017, there are just more than 49 million Americans age 65 and over, and about 8 million of them can be considered facing the threat of hunger.” And those numbers are growing. The website  Aging In Place, sponsored by the National Council for Aging Care,  highlights the realities of hunger among the elderly. Details and information can be found at  http://www.aginginplace.org/the-facts-behind-senior-hunger/