The Pantry FAQ
What is The Pantry?
The Pantry is an independent 501c3 organization redefining food assistance in Jefferson City, Missouri. We are supported by a wide variety of local congregations, groups, and individuals.
Our goals are to provide food to alleviate hunger in the short term while providing strategic culinary training and resources to families regardless of their income, religion, or any other factor.
We are a completely volunteer group of individuals from many backgrounds and faiths who all share one desire - to help our neighbors.
We believe the self-esteem that feeding your family provides is of benefit to all areas of a family and a community.
What do we do differently?
At The Pantry, not only do we want to help feed people, we want to empower them so they can make better food for themselves and their families. We have created a way to help people get more food, with less money.
Our guests select meals that their family will enjoy from our menu of six options. Our volunteers then package all of the ingredients needed for the guest to make the meals at home. With simple recipes that take about the same time to make as a pre-packaged meal, families can make homemade meals that are filling and nutritious. Please see The Pantry Menu and Recipe Sheet.
Guests receive:
A three-day supply of breakfast items individually packaged for each person in the household
At least a three-day supply of dinner entrée ingredients packaged in amounts to allow for leftovers to supply smaller lunch portions the following day
Detailed recipes designed to be easy to understand for people of all cooking skill levels
Assistance with cooking, meal planning, grocery shopping, and big batch cooking if requested
Additional recipes to prepare meals with ingredients that cost less than $5 each with a minimum serving size of six
We have specifically chosen our meals to satisfy the following criteria:
tastes delicious
filling
easy to prepare from scratch
minimum of six servings
maximum cost of $5
Also of note:
we use a mix of half white and half whole wheat flour in our biscuit mix and pot pie
we have chosen to use high quality frozen vegetables rather than canned
we provide and teach how to use dried beans for their incredible cost savings
Who Oversees This Organization?
Kolbi Ward
Kolbi is a proud mom of three children ranging in age from 5 - 21. Her passions are cooking and nutrition, environment and budget conscious homemaking, homeschooling, and lactation. She is lovingly supported in her many endeavors by her husband, Doug. Her responsibilities at The Pantry are distribution, ordering, menu, and budget.
Stephanie Scott-Huffman
Stephanie is happily married to Reverend Michelle Scott-Huffman and is a step-mother to two amazing teenage girls. She is a photographer and loves to help people become empowered in many aspects of their lives. Stephanie is The Pantry's fundraising and donation coordinator.
Sherrie Downs
Sherrie is the wife to one great husband, John, mother to seven amazing grown children, and grandmother to 16 incredible grandchildren. She loves to motivate and serve others and has spent many years giving workshops to change lives by teaching better life skills in the areas of parenting, nutrition, budgeting, etc. She is active in the Jefferson City Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and feels blessed by the Lord to be able to serve Him by serving others. She is The Pantry's volunteer coordinator.
What Does This All Cost?
We are so very proud of how The Pantry spends every dollar that is donated. We understand that there are a lot of very worthy organizations to whom you could donate and are thrilled when you choose ours!
The distribution plan that we use costs us roughly $3.50 per person for food and overhead (primarily printing costs - BIG thanks to three special individuals who are dedicated to helping us keep our housing cost so low!) In 2017 we raised over $12000 in cash donations plus generous food donations valuing approximately $3500 from The JC Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Lincoln University nursing students, WIPRO, and countless individuals. With those resources we served 1027 families/3843 people.
The Pantry is an independent 501c3 organization redefining food assistance in Jefferson City, Missouri. We are supported by a wide variety of local congregations, groups, and individuals.
Our goals are to provide food to alleviate hunger in the short term while providing strategic culinary training and resources to families regardless of their income, religion, or any other factor.
We are a completely volunteer group of individuals from many backgrounds and faiths who all share one desire - to help our neighbors.
We believe the self-esteem that feeding your family provides is of benefit to all areas of a family and a community.
What do we do differently?
At The Pantry, not only do we want to help feed people, we want to empower them so they can make better food for themselves and their families. We have created a way to help people get more food, with less money.
Our guests select meals that their family will enjoy from our menu of six options. Our volunteers then package all of the ingredients needed for the guest to make the meals at home. With simple recipes that take about the same time to make as a pre-packaged meal, families can make homemade meals that are filling and nutritious. Please see The Pantry Menu and Recipe Sheet.
Guests receive:
A three-day supply of breakfast items individually packaged for each person in the household
At least a three-day supply of dinner entrée ingredients packaged in amounts to allow for leftovers to supply smaller lunch portions the following day
Detailed recipes designed to be easy to understand for people of all cooking skill levels
Assistance with cooking, meal planning, grocery shopping, and big batch cooking if requested
Additional recipes to prepare meals with ingredients that cost less than $5 each with a minimum serving size of six
We have specifically chosen our meals to satisfy the following criteria:
tastes delicious
filling
easy to prepare from scratch
minimum of six servings
maximum cost of $5
Also of note:
we use a mix of half white and half whole wheat flour in our biscuit mix and pot pie
we have chosen to use high quality frozen vegetables rather than canned
we provide and teach how to use dried beans for their incredible cost savings
Who Oversees This Organization?
Kolbi Ward
Kolbi is a proud mom of three children ranging in age from 5 - 21. Her passions are cooking and nutrition, environment and budget conscious homemaking, homeschooling, and lactation. She is lovingly supported in her many endeavors by her husband, Doug. Her responsibilities at The Pantry are distribution, ordering, menu, and budget.
Stephanie Scott-Huffman
Stephanie is happily married to Reverend Michelle Scott-Huffman and is a step-mother to two amazing teenage girls. She is a photographer and loves to help people become empowered in many aspects of their lives. Stephanie is The Pantry's fundraising and donation coordinator.
Sherrie Downs
Sherrie is the wife to one great husband, John, mother to seven amazing grown children, and grandmother to 16 incredible grandchildren. She loves to motivate and serve others and has spent many years giving workshops to change lives by teaching better life skills in the areas of parenting, nutrition, budgeting, etc. She is active in the Jefferson City Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and feels blessed by the Lord to be able to serve Him by serving others. She is The Pantry's volunteer coordinator.
What Does This All Cost?
We are so very proud of how The Pantry spends every dollar that is donated. We understand that there are a lot of very worthy organizations to whom you could donate and are thrilled when you choose ours!
The distribution plan that we use costs us roughly $3.50 per person for food and overhead (primarily printing costs - BIG thanks to three special individuals who are dedicated to helping us keep our housing cost so low!) In 2017 we raised over $12000 in cash donations plus generous food donations valuing approximately $3500 from The JC Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Lincoln University nursing students, WIPRO, and countless individuals. With those resources we served 1027 families/3843 people.