Our Mission: Nourish Neighbors to Flourish
Our Vision: Modeling God’s Love, HEART Nourishes hungry neighbors with healthy nutritious food today, connects them to life building resources for tomorrow so they can flourish for a lifetime.
HEART is an acronym: Helping Eastside And Reynoldsburg Thrive
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. – Jesus Christ, Matthew 25
Hunger is a systemic problem that requires a holistic solution. In Franklin County, an estimated 400,000 people struggle with food insecurity. Food insecurity is living without reliable access to sufficient, affordable nutritious food. Hunger and food insecurity are symptoms of poverty.
Working together, as a community, with an abundance mindset, we can make change happen.
What Hunger Looks Like. Before COVID-19, one in four Franklin County individuals lived in a food insecure family. Food insecure neighbors missed an average of 3 meals a week. That equates to not eating 52 days a year. The hunger gap has not been closed, even when a single parent with a job, receives government support and visits a food pantry or soup kitchen. (Mid-Ohio Foodbank’s Missing Meal Index)
What if we changed the model? Our country has an abundance of food for all. The challenge is re-thinking how we get food to people who need food. HEART, Mid-Ohio Food Collective (MOFC), Feeding America and others are working on the local, regional, and national level to address systems that restrict getting more food to the hungry in our community.
Mid-Ohio Market Model: More families receiving more fresh food & connecting with community resources. In 2019, MOFC challenged HEART to transform from a basic food pantry to the Mid-Ohio Market Model; a holistic customer-centered Market offering more fresh food to more people more often. In addition, the Market acts as a hub, connecting families to life-building community resources.
Mid-Ohio Market at HEART (MOM@HEART)
Nourish Neighbors to Flourish.
2021
4,803 Unduplicated Families Served
17,757 Unduplicated People Served
2,205 New Families Served
2,497,788 Meals Distributed
(source: PantryTrak)
Primary Goal – Hunger Free Healthier Community HEART, together with partners and champions, goal is to feed more people with more fresh food more often. Food is health. Nutritious food transforms lives, helping us to learn, work and be well.
Secondary Goal – Connect Families to Life-Building Resources
Hunger is a symptom of poverty. Breaking poverty’s chain requires us to nourish the whole person. Food brings hungry people to Mid-Ohio Market at HEART. While at HEART, they can connect with life-building community resources: work-force development, healthcare, senior care, parent workshops. addiction recovery, budgeting, nutrition workshops.
Nourish to Flourish Champions
– Helping Eastside And Reynoldsburg Thrive –
Volunteers are the heart of HEART. Last year volunteers donated over 21,000 hours, the equivalent to 10-1/2 full-time staff.
Volunteers handled over 3 million pounds of food during 2021; grocery store pickups, weighing food, stocking shelves, packing boxes of food, delivering boxes to curbside, and loading food into hungry neighbor’s cars. They assist shoppers, clean and maintain the market, operate the back office, maintain communications, manage finances, invite future champions, and spread the cause.
Community Champions and Partners aligned with HEART’s cause offer financial support and/or resources. Community partners provide life-building resources for our hungry neighbors.
‘Love God … love your neighbor.’ – Jesus
HEART Food Pantry, Inc. is a Christian based organization created by the Reynoldsburg Ministerial Association to address food insecurity in our community.
While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God’s creation.
-Maya Angelou