BEAVERCREEK, Ohio — Between rising prices at the grocery stores, children home for the Summer, and families still adjusting to new budgets post-pandemic, many people are experiencing food insecurity more now than ever.

However, one Ohio neighborhood nonprofit is working hard to make every donation count.

What You Need To Know

  • Little food pantries can be critical for people working to make ends meet

  • Feed the Creek is seeing more people rely on the pantries

  • When SNAP Emergency Allotments ended, by March many families saw tighter budgets

  • Community members are encouraged to donate and fill pantries

Several times a week Sharon Fulcher fills bags with food to restock little pantries in her neighborhood.

She’s the founder of Feed the Creek.

“We have 23 little pantries now in Beavercreek,” Fulcher said.

During the summer, the work picks up as more people are out and about.

“Plus kids are home in the summer and that makes a difference as well,” she said.

It’s a really busy time, but Fulcher doesn’t mind.

Keeping food on the table is something she’s been passionate about for a long time.

In 2010, she learned something about her community that took her by surprise.

“Six out of ten kids in Beavercreek are on the free and reduced meal program and I just was shocked by that,” she said.

That’s when she reached out to city leaders and organizations to help start Feed the Creek.

It’s a program that gives food bags to children in the school district.

“In Beavercreek last year we had 79 homeless kids in school. Beavercreek is still part of the food desert. We’re still part of that homeless situation. People think Beavercreek doesn’t have problems, but we do,” Fulcher said.

Fast forward a few years and the idea for little pantries came to light.

“This is the food that is donated to Feed the Creek but we cannot use for the children. That’s more specific, but yet we know people need it and can use it so that’s why we started the little pantries,” she said.

Many times community members will take it upon themselves to fill the pantries.

Canned goods, drinks, and other non-perishables go a long way.

When it comes to keeping the pantries full, Fulcher says she’s been seeing a trend since March. They’re either empty or the food is low, more than she’s ever seen in a while.

“When the Covid funding ended in March, families began to panic is what it caused,” she said.

SNAP Emergency Allotments ended and hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio experienced a cut in benefits.

It was a shock to seniors and working families with children.

“They were getting approximately 300 per child in their home and so when that money ended all of a sudden we have all of these families who can no longer afford food that they need to live on,” Fulcher said.

For many, the reductions came abruptly and Fulcher realized Feed the Creel needed more help from the city and community to keep the pantries filled.

“The outside of people's homes, the front doors, they can look wonderful but you don’t know what is going on behind those doors. You don’t know when somebody is being deployed, you don’t know when there’s divorce, you don’t know when there’s a death,” she said.

Life events can happen to anyone at any time and that’s why Fulcher saif she’s always grateful.

“You do not know what’s going on behind those doors of life,” she said.