Second Harvest holds its largest-ever mobile food pantry at Midway Mall

ELYRIA — The parking lot of Midway Mall was flooded late Saturday morning with a sea of cars. Traffic was backed up on Midway Boulevard and drivers waiting to turn onto the road from Lorain Boulevard sat patiently through multiple green lights before there was enough space for their vehicles to squeeze into. The situation began several hours prior, with some cars arriving at the shopping center as early as 6 a.m. or earlier. It wasn't an early holiday shopping rush causing the traffic backup. It was the largest mobile food pantry ever hosted by Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio, and the wait was a small price to pay for the free Thanksgiving dinners given to about 3,000 households in need. "We originally set this up for 2,000 families, and the response that we were getting, we pushed it up to another thousand, which was not easy," said Julie Chase-Morefield, president and CEO of Second Harvest. "We were packing boxes yesterday afternoon still for this." The food bank has been conducting outdoor, drive-up food distributions for about eight months since the pandemic began locally, but none have measured up in scope to Saturday's. Nearly 170 pallets of food were brought to the Midway Mall parking lot, taking a fleet of one semitruck and six box trucks two trips to deliver it all. Some of the food was donated, some was purchased and some came from federal and state food programs. The turkeys and chickens were bought with help from donors and $25,000 in funding approved by the Lorain County Commissioners, Chase-Morefield said. Inside the boxes families received were traditional Thanksgiving foods like stuffing, cornbread and gravy. Volunteer engagement specialist Shozo Kawaguchi helped mobilize about 70 volunteers, who worked in tandem with National Guard members and Second Harvest staff and board members. "Many of them are experienced, not in this magnitude. But they are used to this mode of operation. At the same time, we also have new volunteers too," Kawaguchi said. The previous largest mobile food pantries had eight stations to distribute food. Saturday's had 16, Kawaguchi said. Chase-Morefield said that for many families, the reason for needing food assistance is twofold right now. "Thanksgiving is always a big time of year for us. This is always when we see some of the highest need throughout the entire year," she said, adding that surging COVID-19 cases in the community have magnified the need. Second Harvest board member and Elyria mayor's liaison Mark Ballard II was one of the volunteers who distributed the food into attendee's vehicles Saturday. His role included planning with the Elyria police to help out at the distribution. When Ballard arrived shortly after 9 a.m., the line already was stretching around the area. "I just feel for the people driving up, because I've seen folks out here that I know," he said. "And I know how important, with COVID, (it is) that things like this continue in the community." Second Harvest has seen the number of families needing help with food grow as the number of local COVID-19 cases has increased. More mobile food pantries are planned in the future, including one from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday at Black River Landing in Lorain. More information and advance registration for that event is available at http://bit.ly/SHFB_NOV23. Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.