Belpre Area Ministries food pantry staff, from left, are secretary and thrift store coordinator Kim Nelson, grant writer Jennifer Crow and food pantry coordinator Kathy Reis. Reis says increased public awareness and response the past couple of months have turned moderately-stocked shelves into wonderfully full ones. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)

BELPRE — Belpre Area Ministries is receiving one of the 24 grants the Joe Burrow Foundation announced for Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Louisiana on Giving Tuesday Nov. 28.

The foundation does not publicize amounts of individual grants, but the grand total of $1.3 million includes significant emphasis on dealing with food insecurity.

That’s one of the goals BAM has worked on in parts of southeastern Ohio for more than 20 years. Besides the food pantry supplying food for family meals, now the faith-based nonprofit has a chance to branch out and launch a new program it designed to encourage healthy nutrition for children of BAM client families.

The program was described recently by Kathy Reis, food pantry coordinator, Kim Nelson, secretary and thrift store coordinator, and Jennifer Crow, grant writer. They work with nine cycles of volunteers, about seven at a time, in the thrift store and food pantry.

The program they hope to start in early 2024 involves BAM Bags, snack packs with a catchy name that are designed to appeal to a kindergarten-through-middle-school clientele. Instead of candy and “junk” options filling up the sacks, there will be items such as juice boxes, applesauce, graham crackers, string cheese and fruits. They will be distributed as special bags added to meal boxes of families who receive regular pantry meal help.

“It may not be perfect, but it will be a big improvement,” Reis said.

The start-up grant is planned to cover one BAM Bag per client child per month, most months, with two bags in June, July, August and December.

BAM has experimented to find the right size of bags and designed special identifying label stickers for the bags. Making kids feel special and introducing them to lots of healthy foods is the important initial phase. But Burrow grants have a more challenging aspect, too. They’re all for one-time start-up funding.

“Once we use the start-up money for a year’s worth of food plus the supplies – the bags and stickers – we’ve got to get the community involved in helping us become self-sustaining on this,” Reis said.

BAM is considering the best way to let residents sponsor BAM Bags for Kids once, for a school year, for the summer or for the whole year. The expected cost is about $10 per bag.

“People will be able to help in a couple of different ways, as they do now,” Nelson said. “We buy a lot of the food we supply but we also accept non-perishable donations and toiletries. When we run short of something, we list it on our Facebook page for Belpre Area Ministries Inc.”

Monetary donations for buying food can be sent through the BAM website, belpreareaministriesinc.com.

“There’s a QR code that goes right into PayPal,” she added. “We just ask that people leave the non-perishable food items and toiletries during the hours we’re open.”

BAM’s operating hours are 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The building at 2310 Washington Blvd. houses the thrift store and the food pantry. Any money made by the thrift store goes back into BAM to purchase needed items.

BAM also provides financial help for a number of essential expenses such as utilities, prescriptions, and gasoline cards for out-of-town doctors’ appointments.

The volunteer-operated organization brings together nine churches from the Belpre area: Rockland Methodist Church, Whitman Chapel AME, Belpre Congregational/Pioneer Presbyterian, Belpre Heights Methodist, Belpre Church of Christ, Porterfield Baptist Church, St. Mark’s United Methodist, Mullen Memorial Baptist Church and St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church.

BAM assistance is primarily for those living in Belpre or Little Hocking, but does not turn away those in need from neighboring areas.

“We are so excited about this grant,” Crow said. “It’s going to help kids make better choices and thrive when they need to fend for themselves.”

That would cover times such as when parents are working long hours or otherwise can’t meet all their family’s needs.

BAM also has had strong community support from other sources in 2023, Crow said, including Belpre Area Community Development Foundation, PM Co. Spirit of Giving, Sisters of St. Joseph Foundation, United Way of the MOV, Washington County Community Action, West Virginia Central Federal Credit Union, Hunger Solutions MOV and the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation, which is presenting a check to BAM this week for food pantry equipment through its Community Action Grant Program.

Those and some other community foundations and groups, businesses and individuals have let BAM be aware of how blessed they have been with astounding community support. In the meantime, Reis, Nelson and Crow will keep dreaming of even more ways to expand and adapt.

Reis emphasizes that a large part of their success so far is their collaboration with each other, the work as a team. But Crow gets a bit modest about her own part in it all. She says of her grant-writer role: “I just drive the car.”

Nancy Taylor can be reached at ntaylor@newsandsentinel.com