Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series profiling impoverished residents of Athens County.
A food pantry is designed to help feed the needy, but one local food bank finds itself in need of aid.
Bare shelves and empty refrigerators remind Tom and Shirley Fox, who own Ray of Hope in Millfield, of their struggles — as well as those of others — every day.
For the Foxes, it is a constant struggle to feed the hungry who come through their front door on a daily basis.
Tom, 68, and Shirley, 60, have lived near Millfield for two decades. Almost eight years ago, they decided to open the doors of their home to aid their neighbors in Southeast Ohio’s fight against poverty and hunger.
The couple’s Social Security disability benefits — which total $12,000 — are their only form of steady income, leaving them below the poverty line.
“Some people say, ‘You should use (the pantry) because you’re in poverty,’ ” Tom said. “It’s for the other people. I feel they need it more than us.”
The couple rely on food stamps for their meals.
Because of their disabilities, the couple have been unable to work for some time. As a result of their disability compensation, they felt it was important to show they could contribute to society.
“We’re the people that people say are sponging from the system,” Shirley said. “This is our way of telling people we’re not that type.”
The food pantry is one room — about as wide and twice as deep as an Ohio University residence-hall room — located off the couple’s home. When the couple have food, they keep it in one of two donated refrigerators or a small pantry. Recently, though, the shelves have been bare more often than not.
“We’re down really, really low right now,” Shirley said. “Almost gone.”
The Foxes’ personal struggles mean they cannot afford to stock the food pantry on their own. When the pantry is almost depleted, the couple spend a few of their own dollars to keep it stocked.
“We just want to help people,” Shirley said “A little boy came in the other day saying he had not eaten for three days. I gave him a box of cereal, and he had nearly eaten all of it by the time he got out the door.”
The food pantry receives donations from two churches, private citizens and an on-campus national service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega.
“(Shirley and Tom) just seem like very selfless people,” said Geoff Buckley, an OU geography professor who aids Alpha Phi Omega’s efforts. “It’s really about helping neighbors out. They’re just really wonderful people for doing that out of their home.”
Buckley heard about the pantry in December of last year and wanted to do his part to help. Joining forces with Alpha Phi Omega, he brought food supplied by the fraternity to the pantry twice a week during Spring Quarter and for a time during Winter Quarter last year.
He hopes to restart those regular trips in the near future, possibly as soon as this weekend.
“I think of them as being right on the front lines of this crisis we are in,” Buckley said. “When we donate there, I know it is going to people who need it.”
Ray of Hope supports about 20 families and gave aid to 334 different families last year.
In 2009, 20.6 percent of Athens County residents received food assistance according to a report from Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Shirley and Tom do not advertise when they have food, but when they do, the news rapidly spreads via word of mouth. People from Athens, Nelsonville and The Plains have all used the pantry.
“When they come, they come a lot (and) all at once,” Shirley said, adding that people usually walk in without warning, some of whom have not eaten for days.
Until a few years ago, Ray of Hope received support from the Southeast Ohio Regional Food Center in Logan.
“We had four ‘sub-food pantries’ that we supported,” said the Rev. Ray Augburn, who runs the Feed My Sheep food pantry in Mineral, Ohio. Ray of Hope was one of those four. “(The Southeast Ohio Regional Food Center) told us we couldn’t do that anymore. We have to abide by the rules so we have to do what they say, I guess.”
Feed My Sheep receives support from the center and, therefore, must abide by federal and state food-pantry regulations.
“We don’t allow anyone to run a food bank out of their house,” said Tina Hall, the Food Bank Supervisor for the Southeast Ohio Regional Food Center. The center supports 15 food pantries in Athens County and supports more than 80 food pantries throughout 10 counties.
She added that, because of state and federal regulations, a food pantry has to qualify as a nonprofit to receive support.
Feed My Sheep qualifies as a nonprofit because it is run out of a church. Ray of Hope, which is run out of a home, does not.
“If I’ve learned one thing with the food bank, you ain’t gonna change it,” Augburn said. “(Shirley and Tom) could probably do a lot more if they had the means to do it.”
Before the support from Feed My Sheep to Ray of Hope was cut, Ray of Hope supported more than 700 families during one year, Shirley said.
“People have come here with no money because they have no job,” Shirley said. “They’ve come in and cried on our shoulders. They’re looking for jobs.
They’re trying so hard. How can people who have money know what it’s like to not have? We understand. … So we try to help.”
If you would like to donate to the Ray of Hope food pantry, call Shirley or Tom at 740-767-3728. They are open from 1-4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but according to Tom, “donations are anytime.”
dd195710@ohiou.edu
