A recent visit to Wesley House Community Center, a partner pantry in Knox County, sparked a conversation with Juanita, one of the founders, about their relationship with Second Harvest.
She shared that the Food Rescue truck deliveries every Tuesday provide her not only with cold food and meats that the pantry couldn’t otherwise afford, but also household items, such as shampoo and towels. These items are donated from food producers, grocery stores, restaurants, and farmers to help reduce waste. Juanita even saves some of the household items for children to give as Christmas gifts to their parents. “I want whoever’s donating to know… they’re just as important as I am. The drivers, the stores, my volunteers… every one of us is a puzzle [piece], and we have to fit together to make it work.”
Read more from our interview with Juanita:
Describe your relationship with Second Harvest, particularly the Food Rescue program.
Very bluntly, Juanita stated that Wesley House “couldn’t keep the doors open without Second Harvest.” She says that even if the items dropped off from the Food Rescue truck only have a couple of days before the printed date, they don’t last that long in her pantry. Juanita says that the pantry’s relationship with Second Harvest has caused them to grow from serving thousands of our neighbors in a year to thousands each month.
When did you first start the pantry?
The pantry was started in 2020, during the pandemic. Due to an increase in available products once the Food Rescue truck started weekly deliveries, the pantry is now open to the community every day of the week, “no questions asked.”
“If we had to buy the cold stuff that we give out because of the rescue truck, we couldn’t buy the canned food,” Juanita says. “The grandparents on down to the kids have to have it, [and] not only for food.” Other household products, like reusable cups and body wash, are brought to the pantry on the Food Rescue truck. Juanita says some of these items are saved and wrapped for children to give their parents as Christmas gifts.
“It’s just weird how I can just talk to the people that help me, that volunteer, and say this is what we need, and you can just about take it to the bank it’s gonna show up on that truck.”
Did you start as client choice back in 2020, or did the pantry evolve into it?
“It always was client choice because I felt like we have people that are diabetics, and I used to have to come to a pantry when I was younger; 80% of the stuff, we didn’t use… I want them to be able to get stuff I know they’re going to eat,” Juanita says.
“Pride and dignity too… I want the people here to feel like they’re loved, I know their story, I’ve been in their shoes… those shoes are hard to walk in.”
Do you think it requires any extra work on your part for it to be client choice?
“No, it’d be more work if I had to bag it up!” she exclaimed. The Wesley House Community Center also picks up donations from various stores in the area. When discussing the importance of choice in terms of the pantry’s products in general, she said: “[When] I go to these stores, I can’t take 500 people with me, so I’m speaking for 500 people.”
In other good news, our friends at St. Joseph’s Food Pantry in Oak Ridge (Anderson County) recently let us know that they received “a bounty of goods… beyond belief” from a nearby Dollar General after their freezer went out. “We would not have made that connection without you,” they stated. Creating connections like Dollar General for pantries like St. Joseph’s is what our Food Rescue program is all about!
For more information on our Partner Agencies, please visit https://secondharvestetn.org/program/partner-agencies/ or contact Kendra, our Agency Relations manager, at kendra@secondharvestetn.org.
For more information on our Food Rescue program, please visit https://secondharvestetn.org/program/food-rescue/ or contact Ruth, our Food Rescue Manager, at ruth@secondharvestetn.org.