Ken, the founder of Pantry 5000 with his wife Sue
Food is a reason people come to Pantry 5000 every Wednesday, but food is actually secondary.
At the rear of a local church in Carrum, Pantry 5000, opens its doors (and hearts) to around 250 disadvantaged people each Wednesday providing free weekly food staples, a cup of tea and kinship hard to put a value on.
A Community Partner of Pets Of The Homeless (POTH) since 2016, Ken and his team at Pantry 5000 also help us provide around 2000 meals per quarter for pet-friends in the Southern Kingston area.
The primary purpose of the pantry is to offer emergency and food relief for locals who’ve fallen on hard times. (Founder of the organisation, Ken, approximates their service feeds around 450 people each week
.) Though Ken would argue the pantry’s function to its community runs a heck of a lot deeper.
We chat to Ken about Pantry 5000, its purpose and its unique community…
The community feeling gets under your skin the minute you enter the huge church hall, and it becomes beautifully obvious what Ken is talking about when he says the pantry provides more than just food.
It was hard to pull Ken away from his work, always engaged in several conversations at once, while his beaming smile was cast generously across the room intermittently. When I finally managed to grab his attention we sat down for 15 minutes (I assumed the longest time he’d sat still all week) with a cup of tea and a bun, to find out what goes on at the Pantry.
So you’ve been running the pantry full time since 2012, what motivated you to throw yourself into such a venture?
It just felt it was my calling.
A little while ago someone told me I should get involved in an outreach program, at the time I was too busy. I had a very demanding career. But then one day I felt the calling and around the same time the Salvation Army, who ran a very small food distribution in Chelsea closed down. I saw it as an opportunity to put my skills into something that will directly help the community. I went into early retirement to do this.
And how long do you spend here?
Ask my wife! 6 days a week, 50-60 hours a week.
And it pays off, you’ve created something very unique at Pantry 5000, did you intend that to be the case?
Yes. I wanted to engage with the community – give them something more than what was on offer. Our model is based on community, rather than food.
Pantry 5000 is more than handing out rations to individuals. We saw in other food pantries the guests were treated like a number – in and out, no real engagement. We wanted something more, a place for them to stay and feel a part of something.
What’s a typical day look like here?
A typical Wednesday begins around 5am. The bread’s delivered at 5.30, so I need to be on site to meet with the bread truck. Then between 6 and 9am the remaining food we receive from food banks like Second Bite, is pulled from the store and cool room and put out ready for the guests to ‘shop’ when doors open at 9am.
What sort of provisions do you offer?
We provide all types of food –dry food, canned food, fresh fruit and veg, eggs, milk and, of course, pet food.
The pet food is provided Pets Of The Homeless (POTH), is this a recent addition?
Yes. We never gave out pet food before we were involved with POTH. Initially we have the opportunity to buy from Food Bank Victoria, but we never had the funds. With very limited funding we decided human food was the priority. Then one day Yvonne (founder of POTH) showed up and told me about what she was doing, at first I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get involved because we had so much else going on. And initially I said no.
So, what convinced you?
Early one morning I saw someone out the front of the pantry, in a swag – one of our guests. I saw he was holding a cold can of soup or something, and it was freezing outside, I said, come on, come inside and grab something warm to eat.
But he was busy, and then I noticed he was actually feeding the cold can of soup to his dog. Feeding his dog was more important to him than food for himself.
It was a stark realisation for me just how important pet companions become to people in troubled situations.
I called Yvonne that very day and we’ve been supplying pet food ever since. The addition to pet food has extended our services and allowed us to help a lot more people. And the pets that come along every week just add to the ‘family’ environment we have here.
What are the situations of the guests that come to the pantry?
Around 45% of our guests are single and unemployed – living rough and experiencing homelessness – couch surfing, living in their vehicles. We also have a lot of single parent families – largely women fleeing domestic violence.
The guests and volunteers have a real connection…
They do. Our volunteers know individuals really well. They see them every week, many have known each other for years. Our volunteers know the guests’ situations, remember their names. They even remember their kid’s birthdays. A lot of the times our volunteers will come in with presents for someone’s child when they’ve remembered their birthday.
And the guests feel at home here, you can see that.
Our guests also feel very close to us.
Not so long ago one of our regulars came in here – smile as bright as sunshine, and she said, “I’ve finally kicked the heroin habit.” We’ve known her for several years. Known her issues, and watched her struggle, tried to help. It can get frustrating, all we can do is be here and provide that support, food, necessities.
But when we get to see the strengths they build after being with us for a while, those moments they find the courage to turn their life around, it almost make you want to cry.
You have a lot of volunteers working at the Pantry, how do you find them – or do they find you?
When we first started 6 years ago, we had 9 volunteers, all of whom came from our church. We now have a team of 60 volunteers.
85% of those are people are guests we have helped in the past. They were so appreciative and felt so involved they have come to us and said, “I want to be a part of this”
To give back?
Not necessarily to give back, but to just be involved in something that makes them feel part of something special.
It helps them?
Absolutely. Part of what we’re trying to show people here is love, and the next step in people’s growth is experiencing what it’s like to be part of a family. Our volunteers consider this a family. Relationships develop between volunteers, they become friends, they support each other. For a lot of people who come here, volunteers and clients, this is their social outlet.
Some people are very isolated. The food pantry (Ken points to the upper level of the hall where the ‘shop’ is bustling with activity) is what attracts people experiencing hardship from our local community, but it’s down here (in the cafeteria) where the real community happens.
We rely on our Community Partners like Pantry 5000 to help us distribute our pet food. It only takes one individual to decide they want to help in some way. It begins with donating food or funds to POTH, but takes a community of volunteers, partners and of course, our beautiful pet friends, to really change the outlook for so many on hard times.
Written by Mandy Delvecchio, Photos by Yvonne Hong
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