Community Comes Together During Pack The Pantries Event

Community members gathered together at The Barn 1880: Historic Venue Wednesday to help stock community food pantries in Kosciusko County.
Kaci Scheve, who organized the event along with Chloe Coria, described Pack the Pantries as a big hangout where people can bring food items for area community food pantries. The food came from individual donations. People were able to bring food to The Barn 1880 ahead of time or with them during the two-hour event.
“And then we’ll even disperse (the food). Everyone can leave with a box to keep their local pantry stocked,” she said.
There are small community food pantries installed by different organizations and people throughout the county that allow people to donate what food they can and take what food items they need. Scheve said the event was to benefit all of them.
Amanda Scroggs, one of the owners of The Barn 1880, said Coria, Scroggs’ daughter, brought the idea to her.
“And I, of course, jumped on it. I love it,” Scroggs said.
During Wednesday’s event, they focused on Thanksgiving items, so people brought food like stuffing, canned sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, as well as “meals in a bag, so a families can come to the pantry, grab this gallon-sized bag. It’s everything to make chili,” she said.
Scheve said she and Cora just wanted to help people with Pack the Pantries.
“Going into the holidays with the SNAP cuts and inflation, everything’s really expensive and we know local families need a little bit of help. This will hopefully help people have a more relaxing holiday and a little more financial stability going into the weeks that follow,” Scheve said.
Scroggs, who also works at Warsaw Community Schools, said, “I know how many families are really struggling right now. So if there’s a way that we can put food back in this community,” she wanted to be able to help. She noted there’s so many generous people in the community and she was so thrilled for The Barn 1880 to host the event. She hopes the event can be done a couple times a year.
There were almost 1,500 food items ahead of the start of Pack the Pantries, Scheve said. “I will say, though, people have brought extra. There’s been a lot of extra.”
At the pantries that are being donated to, some families visit those pantries for one day at a time, some are looking for food to get them through the week so the number of people and families being helped is impossible to know, but those pantries are open to anyone in the community who need them.
Scheve hopes the people who attended Pack the Pantries talk to people about the community food pantries so more people know about them. She also wants to make sure there’s no hunger neighbors in Kosciusko County.
Scroggs said she thought Wednesday’s event was a win-win. She said with people contributing and packing food, it was more meaningful than just writing a check.
“You’re really getting involved and your children are seeing this experience first hand. And it’s a family event. We’ve got husbands and wives and kids and grandkids here, grandparents. It’s a whole family event. And it’s really a way to say this is what it means to come together as a community and take care of people that are struggling right now,” Scroggs said.
She hoped people are using the community pantries to nourish themselves and their families and when those people are in a position to give, they know that’s what they want to do as well.
Scheve said they would love to make Pack the Pantries a regular thing.