Statewide initiative grants money to Lovell community food pantry

Ever since it was established in 2019, the Wyoming Hunger Initiative has impacted food insecurity organizations all over the state. 

The Wyoming Hunger Initiative was introduced by First Lady Jennie Gordon, and the aim of the initiative was to support existing organizations to end hunger in Wyoming and ensure everyone has consistent access to food. WHI (Wyoming Hunger Initiative) does this by offering grants and aiding local programs to provide food for food access organizations. 

WHI is sponsored by many major Wyoming businesses, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming, WyHy FCU and Albertons-Safeway. Each business has donated thousands of dollars to WHI and its programs. 

WHI also has breakout programs such as Food from the Field and Beef for Backpacks that collaborate with Wyoming Game and Fish Department and local farms to facilitate donations of meat. 

On top of a community impact, Wyoming Hunger Initiative has more personal connections through the Angel Account program, which helps cover student meal debt at schools.

In June, the Wyoming Hunger Initiative partnered with the John P. Ellbogen Foundation to collect $120,000 to help replenish pantries across the state. Not only has this money benefited food access initiatives in all 23 Wyoming counties, it has directly helped the local community. The Lovell Community Food Pantry was recently gifted $800 from the organization.

The Lovell Community Food Pantry is located at the Lovell United Methodist Church and serves between 25 and 45 people every week. Churches, organizations and some individuals from all over the area donate food and money to help support the pantry and the people they serve. 

In the past, the local pantry applied for and received grant money from the Wyoming Hunger Initiative. This money went toward purchasing a refrigerator, freezer and shelves for the pantry. These were very beneficial for the pantry to be able to store cold items such as meat, eggs and bread, as well as having more space to store other food items the pantry has.

The Lovell pantry has seen the results of the Food from the Field program. They’ve had game meat donated to them from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department that has been distributed to the families aided by the local pantry services.

“We’ve also had probably about three families come up to us and give us containers of hamburger for the pantry,” food pantry volunteer Susan Peck said.

The $800 that the food pantry received from WHI will be used for restocking the pantry when needed. 

“We’ll be using this money for grocery runs if we ever need anything that doesn’t come in the big donations,” Peck explained. “Usually that’ll be bread and juice.”

Peck shared that whenever anyone worries about the pantry’s funds seeming to be getting low, she reminds them of how the pantry began with so little and that it has been able to grow into the great success it is now. The pantry has always been able to help those in the community that are in need.

“We are so grateful for the assistance from the community and the program,” Peck said.

The Lovell Community Food Pantry is open 2:30-4:30 p.m. on Fridays, with appointments available for donations.

To find out more about the Wyoming Hunger Initiative, visit nohungerwyo.org.