by Tina Neff
Saturday, February 17th, 52 community residents came together, at noon, to celebrate Montpelier Community Pantry’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. At the celebration, Ella Clifton of K&N Carpet of Bluffton and Jay Carfield of J. R. Flooring presented a $1200 check to the pantry. There were also other donations including a few $40 Lent checks. Venus Fields who started the pantry at its new location, 209 S. Main St., said that she was very pleased with the turnout and the support of the community.
The reason that Fields decided to open the food pantry is because the community helped and supported her for a long time when she was laid up in need of a kidney transplant and also a broken back. In return, she wanted to do something to help the Montpelier community. Previously, she worked at the food pantry at the Church of Christ in town and also at Community Family Services (CFS) which provided food in Portland and Hartford City.
Most of the food that the pantry receives is donated by the generosity of the community. Even before the pantry opened, on November 4th, 2023, people contributed items and labor to get the pantry up and running. The first food that was given out of the new pantry was 28 Thanksgiving boxes, and later, 48 Christmas boxes, as well as toys. Last month, the pantry served 250 families. Venus mentioned many of the generous people, churches, and businesses that have donated over the last few months, but the list would make this article too long.
Venus wants to thank the community for their generous support of the pantry. If anyone is interested in donating food, the pantry is short of dry food; noodles, cereal, crackers, Hamburger Helper, Rice-a-Ron, and other boxed foods. She also needs shelving to put the food on. The pantry is open Mondays from 9-4:00 and Thursdays from 4-6:00.
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