KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – April marked the fourth year since three churches joined in their efforts to meet the needs of their community by hosting the Kelseyville Food Pantry.
Steve Nesheim, the 16-year minister of Kelseyville Presbyterian, said they needed to find a better way to get food to the hungry after a voucher system wasn’t reaching as many people as they’d hoped.
That’s when the Unitarian Universalist, Kelseyville United Methodist and Kelseyville Presbyterian churches – just a stone’s throw away from each other – collaborated to create the Kelseyville Food Pantry.
“Each [church] was helping in their own piecemeal way,” said Nesheim. “But we’ve been able to do more by coming together.”
That was four years ago. Since then, with the help of volunteers from all three congregations, they have grown from feeding a dozen families each month to feeding hundreds of community members.
“We are steadily growing, from a giveaway of 11 bags the first month to a giveaway of a total of 171 bags in January, serving 550 people,” said Julie Berry, a member and volunteer at Kelseyville Presbyterian.
Berry said they estimate the cost of each bag – with fresh produce and cheese – at $45, so the food pantry's cost would have been $7,695 in January.
Guests line up long before the doors open at 3:30 p.m. where, as volunteer Nancy Horn said, “Some wait all day.”
But before the doors open volunteers join hands as Kelseyville United Methodist lay minister Voris Brumfield says a prayer.
Then the rush begins. As guests sign in, volunteers line up and wait to be paired with each person.
According to volunteers, this element is what makes the Kelseyville Food Pantry unique: the individual attention volunteers give to the specific needs of each person, who is often selecting food for their whole family.
On the tables there is an assortment of canned vegetables, hot dog buns, peanut butter, boxes of Cheerios and macaroni and cheese, baskets of apples and bunches of bananas.
After each person has made their selection they can choose one additional item from what volunteers call “Jack’s Table,” an assortment of extras that guests might not get very often.
On Tuesday the Bisquick pancake mix and Martinelli’s sparkling apple cider were the first to go.
Most food in the pantry is donated by the community, but volunteer Rich Simpson said they’ve come up with a few different ways to bring in more to meet the need.
“We look at the paper,” Simpson said. “When Safeway or the outlet has tuna for 79 cents a can we buy six cases of tuna because that’s a good price. And you can’t beat it with the food bank prices in Santa Rosa.”
Most of the fresh produce is donated by Riviera Foods and during the summer volunteers work in the high school greenhouse to add the fresh harvest to their supply.
“They’re all planted with tomatoes and that stuff,” Simpson said. “And we take care of it all through the summer and then we get to harvest the product and bring it in here, so in the summertime we have squash and tomatoes, potatoes …”
Simpson said that one of their greatest challenges is knowing what to get and how much but “tuna fish is very popular, and all the vegetables,” he said.
Horn pointed out that they’re always in need of canned food with meat or other high protein non-perishables. Nesheim said they go through peanut butter cases at a time.
The pantry used to provide eggs but with the increase in prices due to recent legislation they have no longer been able to provide them.
Regardless, Simpson said, “We’ve been very very lucky.”
The Kelseyville Food Pantry has moved from the United Methodist Church to Kelseyville Presbyterian and serves from 3:30 to 5 p.m. the second and fourth Tuesday of the month.
For information about donating to the food pantry or receiving assistance, call Kelseyville Presbyterian Church at 707-279-1104.
Email Shari Shepard at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Kelseyville churches band together to feed the hungry
- Shari Shepard
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