Garfield Elementary resource pantry grows to fill district need

LORAIN — Stacked floor to ceiling in a room that once stored old textbooks are nonperishables, clothing, cleaning supplies and hygiene items, all ready for the taking at Garfield Elementary School. The school's food pantry serves families in need there and at nearby Hawthorne Elementary — growing rapidly since it opened in November. Principal John Monteleone said what started out as a question of possibility, Secretary Cindy Vegh turn into a reality. Monteleone visited other school districts and saw where community pantries were filling gaps for families choosing between car repairs, medical bills and groceries for the week, he said. He saw a similar need at Garfield Elementary and asked how the school could help in a discreet, convenient way. "I often joke people didn't show up to Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Plan' speech, they showed up to the 'I Have a Dream' speech," Monteleone said. "From the moment that the idea was born, Cindy could dream it with me." He recognized the district has a partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank, hosting food distributions at the high school and Longfellow Middle School. But those food distributions are all prepacked food, and they can be difficult to get to for families without transportation or require them to wait in long car lines. Soon, Assistant Superintendent Ross May had built the school a dashboard allowing families to order from the food and other necessities the building had on hand, with Vegh entering each item into a Google spreadsheet in the system's back end. The pantry opened to Garfield families in late November. After some trial and error of what items were best suited for their families, the program found its footing. Vegh said Garfield's pantry accommodates dietary restrictions and food allergies and allows families to choose food items they like or need. There are meat products — whole turkeys and ribs from Fligner's Market — frozen waffles for a quick weekday breakfast, Similac baby formula, and cake mixes, canned vegetables and fruits, jelly and snacks. "We always make sure that we have birthday cakes, frosting and candles so a child does not go without a birthday cake," Vegh said. "… We have flour and sugar and vinegar, just those odd things that they can't get at your local food pantry." Since opening, she said some of the most requested items have been cleaning and hygiene products. As a result, the shelves are stocked with multi-purpose cleaners, toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, diapers, laundry detergent and dryer sheets. There are also racks of winter coats and clothing for infants through adults. The most requested items are often those not covered by electronic benefits, she said. What Monteleone and Vegh thought would be a slow pilot project this year and expanded to neighboring elementaries for the 2024-25 school year grew quickly. Since November, it has served about 70 families, and averages about five per week, Vegh said. She has gotten to know what her regular families like, as some place an order each week and pick it up when they bring their child to or pick them up from school. For other schools that have reached out to Monteleone on how to start a similar program, he cautioned they not only needed the space to store items, they needed the staff behind the project. "When I talk to other principals … the first thing that I tell them is you have to find yourself a Cindy Vegh because it's a lot of work," Monteleone said. "She's doing her job, 25 percent of my job and filling those orders." The pantry will be open through mid-June. It will close until Aug. 1 when staff are back in the building — and Vegh and Monteleone are already thinking of how to get the word out to new, and returning Garfield and Hawthorne families. "I know as much as we try to communicate and get the word out, there's still families that don't even know it exists," Vegh said. The pantry is supported by donations from Garfield families, staff, Wee Care Closet, the Jiffy Corp., American Legion Post 30 and House of Praise Church, which adopted the building through the district's Adopt-a-School program. "Without their donations, we would not be able to do what we do," Vegh said. "… Even staff have just said 'What do you need in there?' and they bring it to us." When Vegh first mapped out how the pantry's first year would go, her goal was to have a freezer by the end of the year, she said. She got her wish early, with a $5,000 donation from the American Legion in January. As a result, six weeks ago the program opened to families at Hawthorne Elementary School — well ahead of Vegh's original schedule. But Monteleone does not see the pantry stopping there. "Garfield and Hawthorne don't have the monopoly on need … organically, when I think of the next school, I think of Dohanos," he said, as the fellow elementary building is just down Reid Avenue. For Vegh, who juggles the bulk of the pantry's orders alongside her regular administrative duties, it is worth it for the phone calls she gets to make throughout the day. "The best thing to me is when I call and tell them 'Your order's ready' and I hear 'God bless you,'" she said. "I just come in here and say (to Monteleone) my day's been made." Those interested in donating cleaning or hygiene supplies or funds to the pantry can contact Monteleone at jmonteleone@lorainschools.org, Vegh at cvegh@lorainschools.org, or call (440) 830-4140. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.