O'Byrne tabbed to lead New Hope food pantry

One in seven Kansans reportedly struggle with hunger on a daily basis, but the volunteers at the Jackson County food pantry are making sure area residents don’t go hungry.

On a monthly basis, the Jackson County Ministerial Alliance New Hope Center Food Pantry feeds more than 300 people who don’t have enough to eat, according to Jennifer Shaw, the pantry’s current director.

“When I started volunteering, I was surprised by the number of people who needed food,” Shaw said. “We live in this nice, little cocoon, and we think everyone lives like we do. But there are people in this community that are in need.”

In July, 105 households, which included 318 people (113 children, 165 adults and 40 people age 62 or above), were given food through the pantry. Ten new people also enrolled this past month to receive a free box of food.

Three different programs are administered through the JCMA New Hope Center. The first is the food pantry.

“Anyone who is a resident of Jackson County can receive free food,” Shaw said. “There are no income or age guidelines. People can come in once every 30 days and receive a box of food.”

The boxes are compiled using donations from the community.

The second program is a government commodity program for senior citizens. The pantry receives boxes of food from Harvesters Community Food Network for seniors who qualify, based on age and income, Shaw said. The seniors receive these boxes once a month.

The New Hope Center also administers The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) program, which is a federal food commodity program.

“TEFAP is just excess government commodities that are distributed to us five times a year,” she said. “With their permission, we use that food to stock our shelves. We don’t do a separate distribution just for it.”

At the end of the month, Shaw is stepping down as the director of the pantry after serving in that role for four years. Alecia O’Byrne has agreed to serve as the new director.

Shaw said she was volunteering at the pantry several years ago when the former director, Jerry Gosik, and his family relocated out of the county. At that time, she agreed to take on the director’s position.

“I was surprised by the number of young people who access the food pantry regularly,” she said. “I also didn’t know how many people were truly homeless in our county. We don’t have people sleeping in doorways like in some big cities, but I think when homelessness happens here, families will move in with other families or people. It was a shocker to me to realize how many random people were just all living under one roof. It just looks different, but there is definitely homelessness here.”

The New Hope Center has operated out of the basement of the First Christian Church in Holton since last April. The center previously occupied the former Jackson Count Health Department building at Ninth Street and Vermont Avenue. 

“This location is great,” Shaw said. “It’s a lot smaller than where we were, but it’s less expensive.”