Upper Room Assembly starts new food pantry construction
The building should be completed in about a month and is being funded by an anonymous donation of $100,000
Leonard L. Hayhurst- Upper Room Assembly and Worship Center held a groundbreaking Monday for a new food pantry building.
- The 36-feet wide by 100-foot long building is being funding by a $100,000 anonymous donation.
- It will feature food storage space, including freezers and coolers, a covered drive-thru and space for youth programming.
- Upper Room has recently started services at Spring Mount Chapel and will be starting a food pantry and Christian campground there.
COSHOCTON — With skyrocketing food prices and supply chain issues, one Coshocton church is looking to better serve the community.
A groundbreaking was held Monday afternoon by Upper Room Assembly and Worship Center at 803 Vine St. on a vacant lot adjacent to the church for construction of a building to serve as a food pantry and youth activity center. It should be completed in about a month, said Pastor Stan Braxton. Mayor Mark Mills and Commissioner Dane Shryock participated in the groundbreaking.
"This is for the community and the healthiness of our residents. No one should go hungry," Mills said.
The church has had a food ministry food program for more than six years and it has grown into being the largest in the county. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the church distributed more than 140,000 pounds of food to 15,033 people in Coshocton County and the surrounding area. It's averaged about 50,000 pounds of food a month in the past year. It serves people up to a 60-mile radius.
"This is not just our church thing, it's a county thing and even a state thing," Braxton said. "We're pulling people in from all over."
The program is funded mostly by congregation donations with volunteers sorting food when it arrives and passing it out to those in need. Currently, food is stored in the church basement and is distributed either in a drive-thru style when the weather is nice or by people walking through the basement during the winter.
"Our building inside isn't handicapped accessible. A lot of people we serve are older people who can't carry the food out of the basement. We do it outside as long as we can until winter hits," said Stan's wife, Nichole Braxton.
The new building at 36-feet wide and 100-feet long will feature storage space for food, including coolers and freezers, an area for people to come in for for food and a covered drive-thru people can use as well. A portion of the building will be used for to-be-determined youth programming. An anonymous donation of $100,000 is funding construction.
The facility will also aid the Upper Room in expanding its emergency food pantry for those with needs in between the monthly food distribution. They will be able to serve more people more often. The monthly distribution is the third Wednesday of each month.
Braxton knows the need is only increasing with national problems being felt locally and New Life Ministries ending it's food program in January after more than 20 years. Other pantries are in Newcomerstown, Bladensburg and through Canal Lewisville United Methodist Church, Conesville United Methodist Church and Salvation Army.
Braxton said they are also starting a new food pantry and Christian campground at Spring Mountain Chapel. Dates haven't been announced yet. They've started having monthly services there recently.
Upper Room is also receiving a new box truck for transporting food on Friday from a donation by the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. It will be replacing an older truck.
"This is all nothing more than the testimony of God and the goodness he's doing with us," Braxton said. "We're openly showing what God is doing through here, not for us, but for our community. He's definitely blessing our community."
Monetary donations for the pantry can be mailed to Upper Room Assembly and Worship Center, P.O. Box 923, Coshocton, OH 43812. Online donations can be made at https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/245523?kiosk=1. Braxton said they are looking for subcontractors, like electricians and plumbers, to donate work for the pantry building construction.
Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with close to 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on Twitter at @llhayhurst.